An investigation into the use of group work to teach speaking to large english classes at a police university in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK TO
TEACH SPEAKING TO LARGE ENGLISH CLASSES AT A POLICE
UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM
Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp làm việc nhóm để dạy nói cho các
lớp học tiếng Anh đông người ở một trường đại học ở Việt Nam)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF GROUP WORK TO
TEACH SPEAKING TO LARGE ENGLISH CLASSES AT A POLICE
UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp làm việc nhóm để dạy nói cho các
lớp học tiếng Anh đông người ở một trường đại học ở Việt Nam)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Hoàng Thị Hạnh

Hanoi 2014


DECLARATION
I, NGUYEN THI THUY, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into
the use of group work to teach speaking skills to large English classes at a police
university in Vietnam” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the
Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of
Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Hanoi 2014
Nguyen Thi Thuy

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from a number of people
in the course of carrying out the research paper. I highly treasure the important role
they played in making the completion of this minor thesis a success.

First of all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh for
painstakingly reading through my work from the beginning to the end and for her
constant advice and invaluable comments and suggestions. Without her continuous
support I may not have come this far.
Secondly, I want to express our sincere gratitude to the Post-Graduate lecturers who
supplied me with basic and useful knowledge about how I could structure a research
project and what I should write in each chapter.
Thirdly, I would like to extend my thanks to my colleagues and my students at the
People’s Police University of Technology and Logistics for their willingness to help
me complete my thesis
Finally, millions of thanks go to our beloved family whose financial support and
spiritual encouragement contribute a significant part to the completion of the
research.

ii


ABSTRACT

This study attempted to investigate the effects of group work on students’
participation in English speaking lessons. Students’ attitudes towards the use of group
work were identified. To achieve these objectives, 36 second-year students of a police
university were involved. The data were obtained through the analysis of students’
journals; notes from the researcher and group secretaries; and interviews with
students and teachers before the treatment as well as an observing teacher after the
treatment. The findings show students’ positive attitude towards group work, which
results in a significant increase in students’ speaking participation. The results
obtained indicate some improvements in students’ speaking. Pedagogical implications
drawn from the findings and suggestions for the further cycle in the action research
are presented.

iii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration ...............................................................................................................
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................
Abstract ..................................................................................................................
Table of contents ....................................................................................................
PART A: INTRODUCTION

1.

Rationale for the research ...................................................................................

2.

Objectives of the study .......................................................................................

3.

Research questions ..............................................................................................

4.

Significance of the study......................................................................................

5.

Scope of the study ...............................................................................................

6. Method of the study……………………………………………… .......................
7.

The presentation of the study……………………………………. ........................ 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 Theoretical background of speaking ................................................................
1.1.1

Nature of speaking skill .........................................................

1.1.2

Teaching Speaking skill .........................................................

1.1.3

Classroom speaking activities ...............................................

1.1.4

Problems with speaking activities .........................................

1.2 Overview of group work ..................................................................................
1.2.1

Definition of group work .......................................................

1.2.2

Benefits of group work ...........................................................

1.2.3

The implementation of group work in the classroom ............

1.3 Review of the related studies ...........................................................................
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Why action research? .......................................................................................
2.2 Research setting ...............................................................................................
2.2.1

Overview ................................................................................
iv


2.2.2 Description of the English course................................................................................. 19
2.2.3 Participants........................................................................................................................ 19
2.3 The Research Design........................................................................................................... 20
2.4 The procedure of the study................................................................................................. 20
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

3.1 Students’ journals................................................................................................................. 26
3.2 Teachers’ notes and secretaries’ notes.............................................................................. 30
3.3 The post-treatment interview with the observing teacher........................................... 31
3.4 Some newly-arising problems and solutions for the next cycle................................ 34

PART C: CONCLUSION

1. Summary of the study............................................................................................................ 36
2. Pedagogical implications...................................................................................................... 37
3. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies........................................ 37
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 39
APPENDICES................................................................................................................................ I

v


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the research
With my own experiences of an English teacher, I see that speaking is a problem
for most of non-majored English students. My students are not an exception. Before
entering their universities, they mainly come from rural areas, so they did not have a lot
of chances to practice English in communication or for interaction in their daily life.
During the speaking lessons, the students seem to rather quiet and passive. Whenever I
ask them to say something in English, they just say “yes” or “no” and hardly answer
the open questions like “Why …?”, “What do you think…?”, etc. As a result, teacher
talking time was much greater than student talking time in class. The speaking period
seems to be boring and stressful not only to the students but to me as well. Besides, I
encountered quite a few problems in terms of a large number of students in my English
classes. In speaking lessons, I cannot control and check individuals’ speaking
performance. Speaking opportunities for each student become limited. Most of students
do not have any contributions to their speaking, whereas only few students take part in
speaking activities.
In order to overcome these obstacles and make my speaking lessons more
interesting, I tried to search and read some studies to find some solutions to my
problems. One of the strategies that reflect the principle of learner - centeredness is

group work. This method was applied widely in some classrooms and showed some
positive effects on students’ speaking. However, when group work is used in my own
context, I do not know whether it is appropriate and helpful to my students or not.
Therefore, it is necessary for me to do a small action research on “the use of group
work to teach speaking skills to large English classes at a police university.”

1


2. Objectives of the study
With the attempts to find out the extent which the use of group work can help
my students enhance their speaking skills and also know how my students perceive this
learning technique. Specifically, this study is carried out with two main objectives as
following:
-

To investigate the effects of group work on students’ participation in English
speaking lessons.

-

To examine students’ attitudes towards the use of group work in the classroom

3. Research questions

In order to achieve the set goals in the previous section, the research seeks to
answer the following research questions:
1. How does the use of group work influence students’ speaking?
2. What are students’ attitudes towards the use of group work in English speaking

lessons?
4. The significance of the study

After finding out the impacts of group work in oral performance, this study is
hoped to be valuable to both teachers and students at my university.
Firstly, it helps me to understand whether the use of group work increases
students’ participations in speaking activities or not. Moreover, this research is also
expected to raise the teachers’ awareness of students’ motivation in language learning
in general, and in speaking in particular. From these findings, it will be useful for my
colleagues to select the suitable methods in their future lesson planning.
2


Besides, for my students, they may have one more chance to practice their
speaking skills in another way in comparison to previous methods. Their teacher’s
transformation in group work implementation will be able to be beneficial to the
students.
5. The scope of the study
This study mainly focuses on the impacts of group work on students’ speaking
in English lessons. Besides, their attitudes towards the use of group work in speaking
activities are also one of the concerns of the study.
The participants in this study are 36 second year non English-majored students
at my university.
6. Method of the study
In consideration of the research’s purposes, this study employs three data
collection instruments including interviews with teachers and students; students’
journals; notes from the researcher and the groups’ secretaries.
The interview with students and teachers: this instrument is employed to find
out the problems students encountered in previous speaking lessons.
Students’ journals: These journals are collected at the end of each lesson during

the experiment to investigate what students like and dislike about the use of group
work in speaking lessons.
The interview with the observing teacher: This method is carried out to
investigate her opinions about the use of group work to teach speaking skills and its
appropriateness after she observed some speaking lessons in the process of experiment.

3


The notes from the researcher and the groups’ secretaries: These notes are
collected to identify whether there is any progress or not after the actions.
7. The presentation of the study
This study is organized in three main parts. Part A is the INTRODUCTION
which presents the rationales, the objectives, the research questions, the significance,
the scope, the methods and the presentation of the study. Part B is the
DEVELOPMENT of the research including in three chapters. The first chapter reviews
the literature relating to the use of group work to teach speaking. The second chapter
describes the situation where the research was conducted and the informants involved
in the research. It also includes the description of English course, research design, the
teaching cycle in the study. The method of data collection and its procedures. The third
chapter comes up with the results of the effects of group work on students’ speaking
performance and students’ attitudes towards group work. Part C is the CONCLUSION
which includes the major findings, their implications and plan for the next research
cycle.

4


PART B : DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This study investigates the use of group work (GW) to teach speaking skills. It
aims at finding out how this implementation influence on students’ speaking and what
their attitudes towards this method are. This chapter reviews the literature on
theoretical background of speaking including nature of speaking skill, teaching
speaking skill, classroom speaking activities, problems with speaking activities. In
addition, some theories about GW such as the definition of GW, benefits of GW, some
problems and suggested solutions in using GW, the implementation of GW in the class
room are also addressed in this chapter. Besides, some reviews of related studies are
mentioned at the end of the chapter.
1.1. Theoretical background of speaking
1.1.1. Nature of speaking skill
In the process of teaching and learning English, speaking skill plays an
important role in mastering this language. Therefore, there are many different studies
about this field. Each scholar has their own views about it. Nunan (1991, p.40) says
that “speaking is the same as oral interaction which are conventional ways of speaking
information, expressing our idea, and thought in our mind. Sharing the same opinion,
speaking can be considered to be “an interactive process of constructing meaning that
involves producing and receiving and processing information” (Brown, 1994b; Burns
& Joyce, 1997). These definitions can be understood that the interaction of learners is

the vital factor in speaking activities.
Moreover, Brown (1994b) affirms that interaction is the heart of
communication; it is what communication is all about, for example in the cases of
5


sending messages; receiving them; interpreting them in a context; negotiating
meanings; and collaborating to accomplish certain purposes. And interaction is the
collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people
resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other.

In another way, Chaney and Burk (1998, p.13) argues that speaking is "the
process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal
symbols, in a variety of contexts". This definition mainly covers some factors related to
different ways of exchanging information in different communicative contexts.
Therefore, in speaking process, learners are also required to know not only how to
produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary but
also when, why and in what ways language is produced.
Besides, Gower et al.(1995, pp.99-100) state the two main aspects of the
speaking skill including “accuracy” and “fluency”. It is said that accuracy involves the
correct use of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and describe fluency as “the
ability to keep going when speaking spontaneously”.
From some definitions above I choose to refer to speaking in this thesis as the
process of exchange opinions, ideas, thoughts, and feelings between two or more
learners to support with each other on the basis of their cooperation.
1.1.2. Teaching Speaking skill
It is undeniable that the speaking ability is a good source of motivation for most
students because of its significance in their life. Therefore they view learning the
language as learning how to speak the language. According to Nunan (1991), success is
measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the target language.

6


Today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve
students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express
themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each
communicative circumstance. The arrival of communicative language teaching (CLT)
in the late 1960s can be one of some choices for this goal. CLT is based on real-life
situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students
will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language

(Kayi, 2006). Byrne (1981, p.71) shows that the communicative approach allows many
interactive oral activities in the classroom. Learners participate in group work
(including of more than two students), play their own roles to speak to others, who
have the same role. Learners are introduced to clear targets by their teacher and
teachers may create communicative conditions, go round, and participate in the
activities to help their students.
Nunan (1989, p.94) also points out the approach which consists of aspects
common to some definitions of CLT: CLT review language as a system for the
expression of meaning. Activities involve oral communication, carrying out meaning
tasks and using language, which is meaningful to the learners. Objectives reflect the
needs of the learners. They consist of functional skills as well as linguistic objectives.
The learners' role is as a negotiator and integrator. The teacher' role is as a facilitator of
the communication process.
1.1.3. Classroom speaking activities
Speaking skills should be taught in attractive and interesting activities. Many
researchers discuss classroom activities and a lot of activities are designed based on the
theory and characteristics of CLT.

7


Harmer (2001, pp.348-352) mentions six classroom speaking activities. They
are acting from script, communication games, discussion, prepared talks,
questionnaires, simulation, and role play. Richards and Rodgers (1986, p.165) state that
the range of exercise types and activities with a communicative approach is unlimited,
provided that such exercises and activities enable learners to attain the communicative
objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication and require the use of
such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and
interaction. Gagne (1985) indicates that students’ motivation to participate in activities
is one of important types of motivation, it is essential to consider what kind of

activities can enhance students’ motivation on learning language. At the same time,
Lawtie (2004, p.1) also strongly believes in the important role of the right activities in
speaking class when arguing that “if the right activities are taught in the right way,
speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the
English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be”.
In order to clarify that communicative activities are effective and motivating, Ur
(1996, p.120) lists out some necessary characteristics of them. First, “learners talk a
lot” which means as much as possible of period of time allotted to the activity is in fact
occupied by learners’ talk. Second, “participation is even”. In other words, classroom
discussion is not dominated by a minority of talkative students: all get a chance to
speak, and contributions are evenly distributed. Next, “motivation is high” which can
be understood that learners are eager to speak because they are interested in the topics
and have something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to
achieving a task objective. Finally, “language is of an acceptable level”.
From the theories on speaking activities above, it can be inferred that it is
necessary to adopt appropriate speaking activities which can help learners develop
8


speaking skill. As a result, the teacher can help students practice what they have learnt,
find ways to achieve communicative objectives.
1.1.4. Problems with speaking activities
According to Ur (1996, p.121), teachers often come across the following
problems. The first is “inhibition”. Unlike reading, writing and listening activities,
speaking requires some degree of real-time exposure to an audience. Learners are often
inhabited about trying to say something in a foreign language in the classroom because
they are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face, or simply
shy of the attention that their speech attracts.
Having nothing to say is the second problem. Teachers often hear learners
complain they can not think of anything to say. They may have no motivation to

express themselves beyond the guilty feeling that they should be speaking. The
problem is also mentioned by Lawtie (2004) and it is necessary to be tackled.
Moreover, uneven or low participation is among the teachers’ obstacles. Only
one participant can talk at a time if he or she is to be heard. In a large group, this means
that each one has only very little time for talking. This problem is compounded by the
tendency of some learners to dominate the group, while the others speak very little or
not at all.
Last but not least, mother-tongue use is also problematic. When all, or a
number of the learners share the same mother tongue, they may tend to use it. This
happens because it is easier, because it is unnatural to speak to one another in a foreign
language and because or because learners feel less ‘exposed’ if they are speaking their
mother tongue. Lawtie (2003, p.2) also states that the problem would happen if the task
or activity is not “pitched at the right level for the students”. If the language is pitched
9


too high they may revert to their first language, likewise if the task is too easy they
may get bored and revert to the first language, too.
To deal with the problems, Lawtie (2004) believes that as a teacher maybe it is
necessary to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities in order to make the
activities interesting enough to capture students’ interest and create a real need for
communication.
In a word, overcoming these obstacles in speaking class to create successful
speaking activities where learners talk a lot, participation is even and motivation is
high certainly requires a lot of teachers’ efforts in designing and carrying out speaking
activities.
1.2. Group work.
1.2.1. Definition of group work.
Based on research purposes, each researcher has their own definition. Here are
some definitions about group work.

Doff (1988, p.137) defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides the
class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group),
all the groups work at the same time.”
In addition, group work is defined by Johnson and Smith (1991, p.15) as "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 pairs".
According to Richards (1983, p.189), group work is an essential activity
because the kind of interactions produced in group activities has been shown to be

10


quantitatively as well as qualitatively different form that which goes on in the teacherdominated lessons.
From these above definitions, it can be inferred that group work described in
this study is the process in which students work together in small groups (of four
students) so that they can share aims and responsibilities equally to complete some
assigned tasks.
1.2.2. Benefits of group work.
There have been some authors which showed their positive opinions about the
use of group work in language learning. Here are some main benefits.
Firstly, students' responsibility and autonomy are promoted through group work
activities. All students work together, share their ideas, and always want to reach the
goal in group activities. In addition, one of their main tasks is being in charge of their
group activities. Every learner is in charge of his own and each others' speaking.
According to Doff (1998) group work and pair work encourage students to share ideas
knowledge such as “in a reading activity, students can help each other to explore the
meaning of a text, in a discussion activity; students can give each other new ideas".
Brown (2001) also states that the whole-class activities often give students a lot of time
to relax even in a small class of fifteen or twenty students but when they participate in
group work, group members’ responsibilities become equal.

Secondly, learners' participation, talking time and oral fluency are improved
through group. As for Ur (1996, p.232), students can have a learning task during small
interaction in group work and it is considered as a kind of their activation and is very
valuable for practicing of fluency in speaking. There are five groups in a class; students
can get five times as some chance to speak as in a big class.
11


Thirdly, the students' motivation is improved through group work activities. .
Group-work activity can allow participants to use the language. 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, p.141) states " students feel less anxiety
when they are privately than when they are on shown in front of the whole class. Pair
work and group-work can help shy students, who would never say anything in a whole
class activity"
In general, group work offers many chances for co-operation, through which
students share responsibilities, support each other, learn to negotiate and listen to
different opinions. They feel equal to participate in group work and confident to share
their ideas. However, group activities still have got many problems when some
students control the group a lot and make others uncomfortable, so how to organize
group work effectively is the big question for educators and language teachers.
1.2.3. The implementation of group work in the classroom
It is clear that effective group work in the classroom does not occur
automatically. Therefore, group work requires teachers’ careful preparation so that their
implementation can be successful. According to Brown (2001), if group work is not
carefully planned, well executed, monitored thoroughly and followed up on in some
ways, it can go wrong. The following are practical steps suggested by him to take to
carry out successful group work in the classroom.

1.2.3.1. The selection of appropriate group techniques
The first step in promoting successful group work is to select an appropriate
task. Typical group tasks are defined and briefly characterized by Brown (2001) as
12


follows. The first task is game. A game could be any activities that formalize a
technique into units that can be score in some way. Guessing games are common
language classroom activities. The second one is role-play which minimally involves
giving a role to one or more members of a group and assigning an objective or purpose
that participants must accomplish. A group role-play might involve a discussion of a
political issue, with each person assigned to represent a particular political point of
view. The third one is drama which is a more formalized form of role-play, with a preplanned story line and script. Sometimes small groups may prepare their own short
dramatization of some event, writing the script and rehearsing the scene as a group.
The fourth one is projects. Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from
hands-on approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed. The fifth
one is interview. It is a popular activity for pair work, but also suitable for group work,
interviews are useful at all level of proficiency. The sixth is brainstorming which is
often put to excellent use in preparing students to discuss a complex issue. It is a
technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process. Brainstorming
involves students in a rapid-fire, free-association listing of concepts or ideas or facts or
feelings relevant to some topic or context. The seventh is information gap. This
technique is one of the easiest and most interesting forms of communicative activity in
the speaking lesson. Information-gap activities include a tremendous variety of
techniques in which the objectives is to convey or to request information. The
information that students seek can range from simple to complex. The eighth is opinion
exchange which is a difficult technique for students to deal with at the beginning levels
of proficiency, but by the intermediate level, certain techniques can effectively include
the exchange of various opinions. Sometimes, opinions are appropriate; sometimes
they are not. The last ones are problem solving and decision making. Problem-solving

is also popular in speaking lesson of major students. Problem-solving group techniques
focus on the group’s solution of a specified
13


problem. The problem might be relatively simple (such as giving directions on a map),
moderately complex (such as working out an itinerary from train, plane, and bus
schedules), or quite complex (such as solving a mystery in a “crime story”). Decisionmaking techniques are simply one kind of problem-solving where the ultimate goal is
for students to make a decision.
In this thesis, role-play and decision making are used in three speaking lessons
because of some reasons. First, they are appropriate to the given requirements of three
activities in the lifeline pre-intermediate) including role-play a conversation about
ordering a meal (unit 8), role-play a conversation about making reservation with the
given information (unit 9), make suggestions for the given situations (unit 10). Second,
these are simple tasks which are popular in speaking lessons of non-major English
students.
1.2.3.2. Group work planning
According to Brown (2001), after we have selected an appropriate type of
activity, our group work planning should include the following seven rules for
implementing a group technique. The first rule is to introduce the technique. According
to Brown (2001), the introduction of the technique may simply be a brief explanation
but it can decide the success of group work’s results. The introduction should always
include a statement of the ultimate purpose so that students can apply all other
directions to that objective. The second one is to justify the use of small groups for the
technique. Sometimes many students are reluctant to participate in group work, they do
not understand why group work is used for this task. Therefore, in cases of necessity,
the teachers tell them explicitly why the small group is important for accomplishing the
task. At the same time, the teacher remind them that they will get an opportunity to
practice certain language forms or functions, and that if they are not
14

willing to speak up in front of the whole class, it is their chance to do so in the security
of a small group. The third one is to model the technique. It may be not necessary to
model simple techniques or the techniques that students have done before. But for a
new and complex task, it may be useful to make sure students know what they are
supposed to do. The fourth one is to give explicit detailed instructions. When students
have understood the purpose of the task and how their discussion might proceed,
teacher will give them specific instructions on what they are to do. They include: a
restatement of the purpose, rules they are to follow, a time frame (time needed to
complete the task), assignment of roles to students. The fifth is to divide the class into
groups. There are many ways to divide the class into groups. If teachers want to ensure
participation and control, they can pre-assign groups in order to account for one or two
of the following: proficiency levels; age or gender differences; personality types;
cognitive preferences; interests; prior learning experience; target language goals. The
sixth is to check for clarification. Before students start moving into their groups, the
teacher can check whether students all understand their assignment by asking some of
them to restate the purpose of this activity.
Referring to the study, I implemented these above rules in the training session in
order to make sure my student know what they will do in the experiment lessons.
These are described specifically in the procedure of the study..
1.3. Review of the related studies
The use of group work in speaking lesson has been mentioned in many studies.
Each researcher has their own ideas but sometimes to some extent they also have
common things.
There have been a few researches on the process of implementing group work in
speaking lessons (Thuy, 2008; Rob Watkins, 2005). Thuy (2008) investigated the
15

st

procedures of organizing group work activity in the speaking lesson of 1 -year major
students. She identified strategies used by teachers to stimulate students’ use of English
in group work and the factors bringing about difficulties for the teachers and students
in their application of group work. Rob Watkins (2005) suggested that the effectiveness
of group work depends on the types of motivation the teacher use in the class and the
way they design group work activity.
These studies have touched upon a domain which has been much concerned
lately: the implementation process of group work. However, these studies have have
not made clear about interaction process in group work, learner-learner interaction
during small group activity, strategies to involve students in group work activity.
Moreover, these studies have mainly focused on the process of group work
implementation in speaking lesson of English-majored students
Besides, a number of other studies have found that group work helps develop
students’ speaking ability and increase the effectiveness of a speaking lesson. Linh
(2008) found that when applying group work activities in speaking lesson, majority of
the students are interested in discussion. Through group work, students have
opportunities to help each other as well as exchange experience to find a good way to
improve on their own communication problems. After doing an action research, Thuy
(2010) indicated that the use of group work had good effect on students’ participation,
for instance, student-initiated interactions increased and contributions by students who
were shy increased. Donough (2004) also reports clear positive effects that small group
activities had on improvement of production of the target forms. Adams (1976) and
Castanos (1985) found out that students not only talked more, but also used a wider
range of speech acts in the small group work context.

16

The studies mentioned above have firmly asserted the important roles of group
work activities in improving learners’ speaking skill. Firstly, group work helped to
increase students’ participation in communicative activities in large classes (Thuy,
2010). Secondly, group work maximized the opportunities for students to communicate
and exchange the information with each other, (Linh, 2008). In addition, learner-learner
interaction through group work activities was useful for practicing oral communication
skills (McDonough, 2004).
In general, in these studies, the use of group work brings many benefits to
students in speaking lessons. However, I do not know whether these findings are
worked well in my own context. Therefore, I would like to do this thesis to investigate
how the implementation of group work affects students’ speaking.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter gives a thorough description of how the research was carried out.
The first part is the description of the research setting and the participants involved in
the research. The teaching cycle implemented in the program will be given in the
second part. The next part concerns the research methods employed to collect data for
the study. The data collection procedure is followed. The details are going to be
presented as follows.
2.1. Why action research?
This action research was carried out in an attempt to find out solutions to the
improvement of my students’ speaking skill. It was carried out by myself - a teacherresearcher- with my own students in an intact class. For these reasons, I believed an
action research design would fit well my purpose.
2.2. Research setting
2.2.1. Overview
I have been working as a teacher of English at my university for four years.
There are fourteen teachers aged from 25 to 47 in my English Department. All the

English teachers are graduates from different institutions in Vietnam such as Vietnam
National University, Hanoi University, The People’s Security Academy, Hanoi
University of Technology. Like students of other colleges and universities, all students
have to pass a very challenging University Entrance Examination with other subjects
except for English. My students come from all parts of the country: big cities,
provinces and mountainous areas. They do not have the same level of English language
proficiency. Some of them have learned English for 11 years, some have learned
English for seven years and some others have learned English for three years. In terms
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