1 PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study: Until now, English has been considered very important in every field of each society such as: diplomacy, business, aviation, education and science and technology Because of its globalization, English has become the crucial medium in communication In Vietnam, since 1986, English has become very popular because there have been English-speaking people coming to, visit or work in Viet Nam They come to Vietnam not only because they want to business with the Vietnamese but also they want to get to know about the people, the cultures and explore the beauty of Vietnam Specially, with the open-door policy, many foreigners have been attracted by Vietnam Thus, English has been the key to Vietnam’s regional and global integration English is used not only between the Vietnamese and foreigners but also between the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese All this burns the desire of learning English in Vietnam The demand for English training is promoted by an increasing influx of foreign investments from both English-speaking countries and non-English-speaking countries which needs English as a means of communication Vietnamese people need to be able to communicate in English successfully and effectively The lack of communicative ability in oral and other language skills in using English can put Vietnamese regionally and internationally in an inferior position both in politics and economics In FPT University, English is a compulsory subject and certainly, every student knows that it will be important for their future job They will use English at work The students here opt for English due to their realization that a high proficiency in English will give them more opportunities for employment, let alone the possibility of going abroad for their further study in the exchange training program of FPT University and some Universities in Germany, Japan etc Among the four languages skills, most students think that speaking is the most important in the first year of studying in FPT University During the time of studying in FPT University, they will have to learn English for semesters (each of which in university lasts for 13 weeks) include most English lessons After the second year, they will learn the subjects almost with the English–speaking teachers and they will have to present their topic of study in English Furthermore, after graduation the students will have to business, negotiate with the partners in English to sell their products to them To make these successfully, they must have a good ability of English especially communicating orally in it For a long time, the language teaching and learning was based on the out of date methods which could not help the students speak fluently and communicatively For over the past few years, Communicative Language Teaching method has been widely applied As a result, the students’ speaking skill has been improved remarkably This marked the beginning of the major change in the language teaching and learning at all levels from school to university FPT University is a newly founded university (more than two years old) who also would like to innovate their teaching and learning With this implied ambition, we expect that there will be many changes in the teaching as well as learning in FPT University Here, the teaching of speaking skill is always emphasized All the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learning English speaking skill well However, the result has not met their expectation Many failed their speaking test When discussing in group, many students still use Vietnamese while others keep silent etc In the speaking class, the 1st –year students have to many speaking activities Among them, group work-one of the key features of learner-centered orientation- have received more emphasis -because at the end of each semester, the students from the level of preintermediate on have to sit for speaking test which includes two parts: panel discussion and individual response Much time has been devoted to group work activities because of a number of advantages they bring about For example, group work can dramatically increase the amount of talking for individual students, encourage border skills of participation, cooperation and negotiation, promote learner autonomy by allowing students to make their own decisions in the group without being told what to by the teacher, and free the teacher from her usual role of instructor-corrector-controller Working as a teacher at FPT University for more than two years, the researcher is well aware of the importance of using group work to help improve the speaking class of the st year students However, like many other teachers of English here, the researcher has also faced many challenges in organizing and managing group work during speaking lessons Are the students getting out of the control? Aren’t they lapsing into their mother tongue? Isn’t the organization into group work good for some lazy and passive students? Are they participating in group work? Being aware of these challenges, the researcher and her colleagues at FPT University have decided to help the students to learn speaking skill and this is also the reason why the author of this study chose this area to her research which is intended to make a modest contribution making speaking class of the st year students at FPT University effective and successful Aims of the study: This study is aimed at investigating the reality of the use of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at FPT University To be specific, the aims of the study are: - To clarify how group work is used in the speaking class of the st year students at FPT University - To find the factors that causes the difficulties for the teachers in their application of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at FPT University - To recommend practical suggestions for the possibility of group work in the speaking class of 1st year students at FPT University Scope of study To improve speaking skill of 1st year students at FPT University, the researcher intends to investigate the current situation of using group work in the speaking class of st year students at FPT University an then making some suggestion for improving it Research questions: This study is implemented to find answer to the following research questions: How group-work is used in the speaking class of 1st year students at FPT University? What facilitates and prevents the teachers from using group work in the speaking class of FPT University? What recommendations for improvement are needed to make group-work successful in speaking class of the 1st year students at FPT University? Methods of study In order to examine the situation of the study, this research used the following methods: questionnaire, class observation and informal interview is also included The data collected from the questionnaire (both for students and teachers) and class observation will then be analyzed and generalized Design of the study The Minor Thesis is divided into three parts The first part is the Introduction The second part consists of Literature Review, Research Methodology and Findings and Recommendations The last part is the conclusion PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking skills and its related concept; 1.1.1 The importance of speaking skill in the classroom Among the four skills in learning English, speaking and writing are the productive skills However, speaking is regarded as very important for language teaching and learning Speaking is a bridge to reach other skills Speaking helps learners to read better, to listen more effectively and write more accurately Speaking is surely the most effective means of communication (Ur, 1996) There are two most important reasons why speaking should be taught in the classroom The first reason is speaking is a good source of motivation for students Nunan (1991) points out, “success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language” For the students who have ability to speak English eligibly, they want to speak English; they know to express themselves in English Thus, they always speak when possible But for those who can not speak English well, they not want to speak in group As a result, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning English In addition to this, in the English speaking class, if the speaking activities are organized in the suitable way, speaking can have a lot `of fun and therefore can raise motivation in the learners If the speaking is practiced successfully, the other skills can also be improved through speaking For the second reason, nowadays, the demand for communication among people is really important Without it, the life does not exist For this, speaking always plays an important role in people’s lives Speaking is considered as survival skill in real life (Ur, 1996; p 134) For the ideas above, speaking skill also plays the key role in foreign language learning and teaching 1.1.2 Types of classroom speaking performance According to Brown (1994), there are six categories relating of oral production: - Imitative: which accounts for very small portion of speaking time in the speaking time when learners are practicing an intonation contour trying to pinpoint a certain vowel sound, etc - Intensive: includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammar aspect of language - Responsive: is short replies to teacher or student initiated questions or comments These replies are usually sufficient and not extend into dialogue - Transactional (dialogue): is carried out for the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information Conversations, for example, may have more of a negative nature to them than merely responsive speech Such conversation could readily be the part of group work activity as well - Interpersonal (dialogue): carries out more for the purpose of maintaining social relationship than the transmission of facts and information These conversations are a little trickier for learners because they can involve some or all the following factors: a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally changed language, and slang etc - Extensive (monologue): Finally, students at intermediate or advanced levels are called on to give extended monologues in the form of oral report, summaries, or perhaps short speeches Here the register is more formal and deliberative 1.2 Group-work in a speaking lesson 1.2.1 Definition and description of group- work Student-based group work (also known as team work) has become an integral part of studying at FPT University This mode of teaching has primarily arisen in an attempt to capture many of the benefits associated with collaborative activities (namely peer learning and graduate attribute development) What is really group work? According to Adrian Doff (1988: 137), group work is a process that “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.” When working in small groups, the students can be assigned with many kinds of tasks such as discussion, role-play, and presentations which help the speaking activities successful, varied and motivated It can be clearly seen that group work is a cooperative activity in which the students work at the same time, sharing ideas and responsibility and independently have their own ideas which contribute to the group work’s success without every minute observation from the teacher and other students 1.2.2 The advantages and disadvantages of using group work in the classroom 1.2.2.1 Advantag es Clearly, group work can increase the student talking time, which increases the speaking skill In other word, group work helps improved communication The students who have little chance to talk to each other now can share ideas, become close in the short time and above all solve the common problem assigned by the teacher Besides, working in groups helps students to produce greater output Simply because of the number of people involved, each with different experience, knowledge, points of view and values, a larger number and variety of ideas can be given Moreover, the exchange of the ideas in the group can act as a stimulus which will encourage individuals to give more ideas, more opinions and therefore contribute more to group work activities In addition to this, group work helps to reduce bias The shared responsibility in a group in coming to decisions can encourage individuals to explore seemingly realistic ideas and to challenge accepted ways of doing things Individual biases and prejudices can be challenged by the group, forcing the individual to recognize them Group pressure can also encourage individuals to accept that change is need Finally, students’ group work frees the teacher from the usual role of “an expert who always lectures” and allows him/her to walk to each group, to guide, to answer questions from students or to encourage students to work actively (Harmer, 1999:116) 1.2.2.2 Disadvantages: One obvious disadvantage is the noise made by the group who have a big argument on the problem or by the group who are so excited about working with one another It is hard for the teacher to control these kinds of groups This can distract the other groups The very bad effect of working in groups is that many passive students or lazy students let their friends everything provided that they still have their names in the group’s result Working in group can cause competitions Most students working in a group unconsciously perceive the situations as a competition This generates a destructive behavior and drains the creative energy of the group For example, we often perceive disagreement with our ideas as a put-down The natural reaction is to regain our selfesteem, often by trying to sabotage the ideas of those who disagreed with us Instead of looking for ways to improve their ideas we chose to destroy them Eager to express our own ideas, we may totally ignore what others suggest Power-seekers may use ploys such as highlighting flaws in others' arguments, barbed questions and displays of expertise to show their supremacy These types of behavior create an atmosphere which is incompatible with effective problem solving Another disadvantage is that working in group is a relatively slow process compared with working alone It requires individuals to come together at an assigned time, usually for about a long time, and this can cause organizational problems It is really time-consuming It is not only time-consuming for the students in group but also for the teacher The teacher needs more time to organize the group work and control all the members in the group let alone the unsuitable students in groups which makes the class in disorder To conclude, although there are some disadvantages of group work, the advantages still outweighs Learning from each other in small groups is much more effective than from the teacher alone (Harmer, 1999:116) 1.2.3 Group formation Small groups or learning teams can be formed in three ways: randomly (counting off or by seat proximity), teacher-selected, or student-selected Random group assignments avoid cliques and ensure that students interact with different students throughout the semester Once you know your students fairly well, teacher-selected groups can be useful for pairing weak and strong students, students with common interests or shared learning styles, etc According to I- Jung (2004), frequently employed grouping methods include random, student-selected and teacher-selected groupings 1.2.3.1 Random grouping Random grouping is often used for in-class activities because of its convenience and readiness that is random grouping is a way including collecting and gathering students ignoring any differences among students in terms of their language level, learning style, interests etc With the seating arrangement, fixing the numbers, using playing cards, or distributing the card of different categories, random grouping is established For the class of different levels, random group can be used to narrow down the gap between the students of different levels 1.2.3.2 Student-selected grouping: Compared to random grouping and teacher-selected grouping, student-selected is preferred Knowing well one another or getting on well with each other can help the students take part in the activities assigned well They can have more talking, making more performances and making the group work activities very interesting However, studentselected grouping can result in making so much noise because of too much socializing This can distract the group activities 1.2.3.3 Teacher-selected grouping Compared to random grouping and student-selected grouping, teacher-selected grouping is a more time-consuming one The reason is that the teacher has to take students’ preferences into consideration, also the learning style, the activeness etc to help the students who are at the lower levels to keep up with the better students This kind of grouping can help peer tutoring which is really the most effective way of learning from one another 1.2.4 Group –size Group size is very flexible depending on many aspects such as task type, the time available, the class and how skillful the group members are? How big the group should be? The smaller the group is, the more chance each member has The fewer skills of managing the teacher need to have However, when the group is small, there will be a lot of small groups in the class This also leads to the lack of time for them to give report to the class So how many members in each group is enough? Many authors have suggested that three to five in one group can be the best number Fourmember group is suggested by Honeyfield (1991), I-Jung (2004), Ngoh (1991) Four members in a group might lead to more interesting and challenging tasks, with a wide range of opinions being expressed, and more negotiation required for the group members to reach an agreement Six members in a group should be the maximum number (Honeyfield, 1991; I-Jung, 2004) It can clearly be seen that four is the optimum size to manage students learning It allows a good range of experiences and individual contributions 1.2.5 Teacher role in group work In Communicative Language Teaching, the teacher has the roles of a guide, an instructor, an organizer, an assessor, a prompter and a participant (Hammer, 1991) When carrying out group work, even though the students are more independent, the teacher still plays an important role in conducting( designing) the tasks, analyzing the need The teacher will be of great help for the students as the group members interacting with each other as well as helping them with the difficulties According to Cross (1992:54), the teacher is the manager of an activity who must plant it, organize it, start it, monitor it, time it and in the end conclude it The teacher in the group work activities is not the free one but the one who is active with assisting, supervising and monitoring…the group The teacher is not only at the beginning or the end of the learning process but from beginning to the end of it The teacher is: - activity selector: This is very important because the teacher has to create activities that fit the students' skills and abilities, assign group tasks that allow a fair division of energy as well as set up "competitions" among groups - instructor so that the students will be not misleading - performance controller While the students are working in group, this is the time for the teacher to help, to assist them with the knowledge and may be tackling the difficulties they have with the group - group evaluator In the group work, the teacher not only evaluates the whole group work but also each member of the group If the teacher has good comments on each group’s performance, this helps a lot because it is both good for the students and the teacher himself It is the ideas for the following activities Whether group work is successful or not, it depends much on how and where the teacher applies these roles 1.2.6 Common oral activities for group work There are many activities that can be applied for group work but which one is suitable for the each class type? For the most common activities, I have quoted three ones which are being used mainly among the students in my class They are: group discussion, debating and cross grouping The reason why I made a choice among many other activities is that: the students in my class and some other classes of the same level have to perform these in the final term examination which includes two main parts: group discussion and individual response The 10 first part takes fifty percent of the total speaking mark, which shows the importance of itself 1.2.6.1 Group discussion Discussion sections create great opportunity for students to use active learning strategies to make your classroom a more interactive environment In this kind of activity, the students have a chance to share their ideas with their friends Moreover, their individuals’ opinions are also clearly seen and highly appreciated In this part, the students have used a lot of discussion language to show their ideas to their partners According to Ur, ( 1992: 2), discussion is the “most natural and effective way for learners to practice talking freely in English is by thinking out some problem or situation together through verbal interchange of ideas; or in simpler terms, to discuss” He also adds some factors to the good (or successful) discussion, that is, topic, group work and role play Sometimes in the group discussion, the group has also to find a solution to a problem of different kind In groups, students can summarize main points; review problems such as for exams, compare and contrast knowledge, ideas, or theories; solve problems; or generate comments for you on class progress or on their levels of skill and understanding 1.2.6.2 Debating In the book, “Discussion that works”, (1992:105) even though Penny Ur lists some limitations in debating, he also shows his regret if debating is completely excluded from group work because there are many students enjoying this kind of discussion and he also emphasized the importance of debating when he affirms the things learned in this activity much better than any other ones It is much more interesting when he clearly presents some very useful steps in designing the debating activity including the number of people in each group, the quantity of group, the debating topics, group selection, and time limit as well as motivation creation This is also called “For and against” (Ur, 1996, p134, box 9.6) that is the whole is divided into two big group that One group is for and the other is against This kind of group work includes stages The first is preparation, the second is debating In the first stage, the teacher thinks of the arguments world be for or against In the second stage, the teacher divides the class into groups One has to think of the reasons which agree with the topics set by the teacher and the other group also thinks of the reason but disagrees with that 26 same percent goes with the success of the teacher organizing the group work activities because they said that group work was very important for the speaking skill For the benefit of group work activities, 100% of them claimed that group work is very beneficial and help students to increase the students’ speaking time to promote students’ independence and cooperation to improves students’ motivation to creates exciting atmosphere as it lends itself to game-like activities which frees the teacher from his/her hard role of “an expert who always lectures”, to decrease the teacher speaking time and helps shy and passive students have more chance of expressing themselves and learn from each other They said that group work not only make them not relaxed but also make them more energy-consuming to take care for each small group In short, all the teachers know the importance of group work and how beneficial the group work in relation to the students’ improvement (success) However, what and how they with group work is much more important 2.2.2.3 How the teachers use group work in their current speaking class (by percent) Table 10: The teacher’s uses of group work in their current speaking class Question Options a Totally follow the task in the text book b Design the task in your own way c Collaborate with other colleges to outline a common teaching plan a setting up b Monitoring c Winding down a Students of the same English proficiency level b Students of the mixed English proficiency level c Students of the same interest d Students sitting next to or near each other e Students of the same age f Students of the same sex g Students of the opposite sex h Let the students group themselves a Role playing b Debating c Games d Discussion c Cross grouping d Conversation e Problem solving % 50 100 100 100 100 16 33 33 83 100 50 100 50 100 100 50 100 100 27 f Brainstorming 100 10 a Select the task carefully 100 b Let the students choose the topics 33 c provide the vocabulary and functional language they need 50 d Group students cleverly 100 e Give clear instructions 100 f State the focus and objectives of the activity 100 g Set a time limit 50 h Go round monitoring students’ performance 67 i always provide feedback, praise and encourage students 50 j Set homework relevant to the lesson 33 k Do nothing 11 a stand in front of the class and observe 17 b stand at any place in the classroom and observe 17 c remain in the teacher’s seat and observe 17 d stand close to the students who speak much e Stand close to the students who speak the least 67 f go round the class and give help if necessary 100 g speak as much as possible h only speak if necessary 67 i Keep interrupting and correcting when students make mistakes 33 j work as a group member k Take notes for feedback 100 To get information about the teacher’s strategies in using group work, the researcher has organized the questions from number to number 11 From the table 10, 100% of the teachers in the Batch use their own way of designing the task without any collaboration with others In addition to that, 50 % of them also follow the task in the text book as I mentioned above Each teacher has a Teacher’s Edition and Planner with not very carefully planned steps Therefore it can be a good idea to get the gist of the planner and as they like For the stages used in organizing and managing the group work, all the teachers claimed that they used the three steps: setting up, monitoring and winding up, but they also said when the group work activity was organized at the end of the lesson, they had no time for giving feedback Question deals with the way the teacher used to group the students Interestingly but not surprisingly, the teachers said that they could not organize mixed sex group totally because there are only two or three girls in the class 100 % of them group the students of the same sex and rarely group them with opposite sex In addition to that, 83 % of the teachers responded that they grouped their students sitting next to or near each other into small 28 groups as they explained that it can save time and as for their students’ wishes And only 16% of the teachers grouped their students into the small groups of the same English proficiency level, the percentage of the teachers put their students in the mixed English proficiency level and in the same interest both is 33 % as they added that this depended on the kind of activities the students had to take part in None of the teachers care about ages of their students Half of the teacher said they had let their students group themselves only for the doing project or making presentation which requires them to prepare at home They argued that it is more convenient for them and it can help them to the project effectively Regarding the activities the teachers chose for group work, Role playing, Games, Discussion, Conversation, Brainstorming, and Problem solving are the most frequently in which brainstorming helps to elicit the students’ ideas, background knowledge, role play helps to make the students understand the nature of English and games help them to the group work activities without any pressure and stress The students may think that they are playing not just learning 50 % of the teachers used debating and cross grouping because they thought that debating was only suitable for the high level of English proficiency and cross-grouping takes time In this table, question 10 looks into other things the teachers used during group work activities The things like selecting the task carefully, grouping students cleverly, giving clear instructions, stating the focus and objectives of the activity received 100% ideas from the teachers 67 % of the teachers went round monitoring the students’ performance as there are two pregnant teachers teaching Batch The three things which consist of providing the vocabulary and functional language, setting a time limit and providing feedback, praising and encouraging the students received the less percentage: 50 % And the last two things: letting the students choose the topics and setting homework relevant to the lesson were done by 33 % of the teachers The things the teachers often did during the time of group work of the students is illustrated in the question 11 All of them (100 %) often went round the class and gave help if necessary and took notes for feedback 67 % of them often stood close to the students who spoke the least and only spoke if necessary, meanwhile the things such as standing in front of the class and observe, stand at any place in the classroom and observe and remaining in the teacher’s seat and observe all received 17 % With more explanation for 29 these, the teacher said they rarely did these 33 % of the teachers kept interrupting and reminding when the students made mistakes as they found it necessary to right away so that the students did not have that kind of the mistakes any more It is suggested that the teachers should not give the correction at that time but later for the whole class is better None of them spoke as much as possible and worked as a group member 2.2.2.4 Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying group work in the speaking class Table 11: Obstacles experienced by the teachers when applying group work in the speaking class by percent Questions 12 Options % a Always b Often 17 c Sometimes 83 d Never 13 a Overload work 100 b Too little time to prepare for group work 83 c Lack of academic training in group work 33 d Lack of teaching experience 16 e Few people with expertise to turn for advice 16 f Feeling deficient to facilitate a communicative class 16 g Multi- level class 50 h Low English proficiency of students 50 i Students resistance to class participation 33 j Immovable seating arrangement 83 k Lack of money for material and teaching aid development l Students use Vietnamese during group work 67 m Students make so much noise 50 Looking into the obstacles experienced by the teacher, the researcher see that 83 % of the teachers sometimes met the obstacles and the rest 17 % often met difficulties None of them either always or never met obstacles when applying group work Table 11 offers the result of the types of obstacles the teachers faced Clearly, all the teachers (100%) had overload work When asked, they said most of them had from 15 hours a week or more in the same class, therefore, they had very little time (83 % said so) to prepare for the lesson, especially group work requires a lot of time Moreover, there is one teacher who had even 24 hours a week (one class in the morning and the other in the afternoon), may be he will be exhausted soon The same percent (83 %) goes with the 30 obstacles of immovable seating arrangement The teachers just wanted to save time and satisfy the students’ wishes to remain in one place 67 % of the teachers said their students use Vietnamese during group work if without their teachers’ attention.50 % of the ideas collected go to Multi-level class, low English proficiency of students and students made so mush noise 33 % of the ideas go to lack of academic training in group work and students resistance to class participation as they said since they graduated from university, they had had no time to go to workshop, and moreover, the students refused to group work because they did not like or they just wanted to sleep because they are all night awake for other homework Only 16 % of the teacher said they needed more teaching experience and needed people with expertise to turn for advice and feeling deficient to facilitate a communicative class And lastly, all of them did not blame the obstacles on the lack of money for material and teaching aid development 2.2.2.5 Teachers’ solutions to overcome their obstacles Table 12: Teachers’ solutions to overcome their obstacles (by percent) Options/ a b c d e Questions 14 a Tried to use different ways of implementing 50 10 50 10 50 group work 0 b Made the speaking tasks suitable to the students c Punished lazy students d Asked for help from the faculty and administration e others ( please specify) The table 12 shows the solutions of the teachers to overcome their obstacles 100 % of the teacher resorted to the ways of making the speaking tasks suitable to the students and asking for help from the faculty and administration They said they had tried their best to help the students to well in group work activities and asked the faculty to give more advice for the part they met obstacles 50 % of the teachers tried to use different ways of implementing group work However, 50 % of the teachers punished their lazy students 50 % of them chose the other methods In this answer, they included the ways of talking with the stdudents having big problems like keeping silent or chatting with others in the other 31 groups, and get the students used to doing group work by leting them choose their own favorite topics, choose their own group In conclusion, the teachers are trying their best to make the group work activities efective and sucessful CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Findings: The following findings were withdrawn from the data taken from the survey of teachers and students 3.1.1 How group work was used The survey result indicates that most of the students in the st year (Batch 3) saw the importance of speaking skill in their life especially in their future job as well as their oral test and so the teachers Most of them were interested in this skill compared to other skills such as listening, writing and reading They also knew good speaking skill could help them to communicate successfully For the group work activity, the teachers and the students also claimed how beneficial the group work was for their teaching and learning English Both of the teachers and students have been trying to make use of the advantages group work activities bring about For the students, firstly, group work activities helped them to get closer to their friends as they had not had any chance to talk to their friends until one day the teacher put them in the same group and they become very friendly Secondly, group work helped them to be more independent from their teacher and learn a lot from each other This is really the better way compared with the way they learnt from their teacher Thirdly, group work activities helped them to be more confident when speaking in front of the class as they were given time to prepare, to check mistakes with friends and to rehearsals The teachers also had some advantages from this The first is the teacher freed herself/ himself from being “an expert who always lectures” The teacher had more time for each small group to get closer to the students Therefore, the students’ mistakes were corrected and their weaknesses were limited too Also from the survey, it can be concluded that the teachers used the group work very often because of the requirement from oral tests and the lesson The use of group work helped a lot in improving the speaking skill of the students And most of the teachers in the survey 32 said that they designed their own ways to make the group work activities suitable to the students, these activities were also used but rarely For the kind of group work activities, Role - play, Games, Discussion, Conversation, Problem Solving and Brainstorming were mostly preferred and frequently used The other activities such as Cross-grouping (Jigsaw) and Debating were less frequently used because they are just suitable for the students’ high level of English proficiency For the way of organizing and managing the group work in the speaking lesson, the teachers often followed the three stages: Monitoring, Setting up and Winding down to make the group work go smoothly The teacher also often put the students sitting next to or near each other in the same group to save time, and the students of the same sex (because of the fact of few female students in the university), and they only sometimes let the students group themselves when they did the project and prepared for the presentation at home with each other To make group work activities work effectively, the teachers also selected the task carefully, gave clear instructions, grouped the students appropriately, set the focus and objectives of the activity, and praised and encouraged the students during that time They also often set the time limit, provided feedback when having enough time but never let the students choose their own topic In order to make sure the small group works, the teachers also went round, monitoring the groups They went to each group and helped them to correct the mistakes, even translated the words for them (the words they thought in Vietnamese) and helped them participate actively in their groups Although the teachers have done many things to make group work successful and effectively, there are still some obstacles in the teachers, the students and also in the administration 3.1.2 Obstacles in applying group work: 3.1.2.1 Students’ obstacles For the students, there were three main obstacles which prevented the group work from going smoothly The first and very big one was the students’ passive and lazy learning style The students only learnt what they are asked to learn or even did not homework During the group work, some of them kept silent or spoke Vietnamese and even talked about the other topics with other groups They did not actively take part in the group work 33 and some even refused to group work at home and were ready to receive zero if they did not have to In addition to that, some of them did not pay attention to the teacher’s words or just slept Although the administrator has applied the policy of marking, that is the total mark is the 30 % of Mid term test, 40 % of Final test and 30 % of AP mark ( assignment and participation) to assess the usual learning, many of the students still ignored the teachers’ warning or let it be There is one more thing in the students’ passive learning style That is before each semester, or at the beginning of the first term, the students did not go to explore the subjects they would learn in the first and the following semesters That is the reason why they were shocked, not well informed and not well prepared for that The second obstacle in the students’ position was the students’ uneven level of English proficiency Although the students are sorted in the same-level class but some of them are at a higher level and some of them were at the lower level Therefore, when they were given the difficult task, the weak students did not or say anything There was a dependence of the weak on the better although they also got their names in the group result’s list The students with better English proficiency level feel really reluctant to work with the worse ones This may make the group work activities slow and ineffective The third is about girls There is only one faculty of software engineer in FPT University, so that many subjects are hard for the girls The girls in this University had to try their best to keep up with the male students 3.1.2.2 Teachers’ obstacles For the teachers, there were also two main obstacles which prevented them from applying the group work The first thing was that, the teachers in this university were too overloaded with their teaching hours As said above, every week, one teacher had to teach 15 hours or more of English in one class so they had little time for the group work preparation Moreover, every lesson must be submitted one day earlier so that the administration had time to prepare documents for them Many hours teaching a week and just fixing in one class caused stress and depression among the teachers Usually, the English teacher is also the class teacher so he or she is responsible for the other work of the class Or with two teachers teaching in one class, the cooperation between them was not good This had bad influence on the quality of teaching and learning The second thing was that the teachers have to face with the chase of the text book This means that in 13 weeks, both the teacher and the students had to finish volumes of a book 34 (each volume consists of 15 units and each unit consists of topic preview , four lessons and checkpoint in the same format) When the students complained about that, the teachers seem to be more stressful with the thought of pouring the knowledge into the students’ minds and make it theirs In addition to that, after finishing one lesson, the teacher wanted to test their knowledge in all skills, the teachers were also stressed with marking a lot of papers in a week that gradually delayed their marking and their correction became not very exact anymore This led to the boredom among the students to repeat so many group work activities again and again 3.2 Recommendations: To make the group work work more effectively, there must be a lot of changes among the students, the teachers as well as the administrators 3.2.1 For the students To limit the obstacles in the students, we should concentrate on the learning habits and the Students’ English proficiency For the learning habits, firstly, let the students, especially the freshmen, be informed of the overview of the whole semester before they learn so that they are not shocked or passive with the learning load and they can be well prepared for that Secondly, they themselves must know they are the centre of the learning process and the result of their learning only depends on them They must try hard to overcome the difficulty of the oral test and take actively part in the activities set by the teachers in class activities Secondly, in this university, despite the heavy load of the subject, the students should find themselves the suitable way to learn and set the goal to achieve or else they will fail and be kept behind It has the same meaning with the students having to adapt to the current situation of the university For the Students’ English proficiency, firstly, they can register to take part in the English speaking club or other activities (talk show, English speaking contests etc) held by the English Department to improve their speaking skill These activities not only help them to practice to be more fluent in their speaking skill but more confident as well Secondly, the students should form a habit of speaking only English in the speaking lessons Thirdly but more importantly is, the students should turn to the teachers for advice about their problems so that their teacher can help to overcome their difficulties This is one of the best ways to be successful 35 3.2.2 For the teachers Firstly, the teachers should ask for decreasing the excessive teaching time at the same time with asking for teaching speaking skill in the two classes of the same level This way will help them have more time for preparing the lesson and organizing the group work activities as well as marking their students’ papers This can assure for the high quality of the teaching time By teaching speaking in the two classes of the same level, the teacher can perfect the not good things they have experienced in the previous class Secondly, like the students, the teachers can also learn from each other Regular observation and assessment will help them to learn the better way to deal with group work activities “Two heads are better than one” Moreover, the teachers can discuss in the same level group to have the best way to teach every lesson Thirdly, the teacher should register to take part in the annual workshops during summer time In order that the teachers can share their teaching experiences in organizing group work activities and work together to find the solution to the problems of students’ laziness or passive learning styles 3.2.3 For the administrator Helping to solve the problems of both the students and the teacher needs a lot of cooperation from the administrator The first thing is that the administrator should help the students to have an overview of the learning process in the orientation program, to be aware of the importance of learning as well as the activities The second thing is that the administrator and the faculty of English Department should arrange the teaching time (by stretching learning time from 13 to 15 or 17 weeks.) suitably for the teachers so that the teachers and the students feel less stressful Last but not least, the administrator should invite the experts on methodology to help and give advice for the teachers 36 PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the findings: The findings of the whole study of application of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students can be concluded in the following: a The advantages of the group work activities for the students - maximize the opportunities for the students to engage oral practice and communication - gain independence from the teachers - gain confidence before talking or presenting in front of others b the advantages of the group work for the teachers: - free himself/ herself from being “an expert who always lectures” - have more time with small group and give more attention to them - help to make speaking lessons varied in forms of group work activities Although, the use of the group work activities is very often in the speaking lesson of the st year students of Batch 3, the effectiveness of that is not very high There are still some problems in teacher as well as students: c the students’ problems: - low level of English proficiency and passive learning habit - using Vietnamese during group work d teachers’ problems: - excessive teaching time - lack of training and teaching experiences in organizing group work methodology The recommendations for the students, teachers and administrators are also included in the following: For the students, they should change the way of thinking that they passively learnt the things from the teachers but not actively explore themselves to adapt to the current situation of the University with a lot of hard subjects Changing learning habit as well as turning for teachers for advice is the good way to improve their speaking skill For the teachers, they should ask for the reduction in the teaching time to prepare for really good quality teaching time Moreover, the improvement and teaching experience sharing is a necessity 37 For the administrator, they should rearrange the suitable teaching time for the teacher In addition to that, they should stretch the semester so that the teacher and the students not become so stressful Limitation of the study Like many others research thesis, this study has some limitations The researcher of the study had said in the previous part, this study was intended to look into the current situation of using group work in the speaking class of the st year students in Batch of FPT University and then making some suggestion for improvement The students are only in classes of the 1st year in Batch 3, so the opinion about using the group work in the speaking class might not be representatives of all the students at FPT University and many other universities Suggestions for further study Because of time and limited knowledge, my research study can not be complete and inclusive Many other issues have not been mentioned and need investing more The investment can help to improving the quality of education by giving some suggestions such as reducing the teaching time for the teachers, reducing the lazy students and changing their passive learning habits to help them overcome the difficulties as well as adapting to the new and active ways of learning This study might be a basis for the following studies: - How to help all the students in FPT University and Vietnamese students as well group work effectively - Strategies for involving the students into group work activities 38 References: Brown, H.D (1994), Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language pedagogy, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents Byme, D (1978), Teaching Oral English, London: Longman Bygate, M.( 1987), Speaking, Oxford University Press Carter, R 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language classroom, TESL reporter, 37(1), 1-7 14 Jacobs, G.M & Stephen, H (1994) Implementing cooperative learning English Teaching Forum, 32, 2-13 15 Ngoh, S (1991) Groupwork, Small groupwork in the classroom, Guidelines- A periodical for Classroom language teachers, Vol.13, No.1 June 1991, SEMEO Regional Language Center 16 Nunan, D (1989), Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classrooms, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press 17 Nunan, D (1991), Language teaching Methodology, UK: prentice- hall International 18 Nunan, D (1992), Research Methods in language Learning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19 Ur, P (1981), Discussion that work: task-centered fluency practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 20 Ur, P (1996), A course in Language Teaching- Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 39 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgement ii List of table iii Abstract .iv ... CONCLUSION Summary of the findings: The findings of the whole study of application of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students can be concluded in the following: a The advantages of. .. improve speaking skill of 1st year students at FPT University, the researcher intends to investigate the current situation of using group work in the speaking class of st year students at FPT University... is aimed at investigating the reality of the use of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at FPT University To be specific, the aims of the study are: - To clarify how group