Việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Cao đẳng Cơ khí Luyện kim, Thái Nguyên

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CMM: College of Mechanics and Metallurgy ESP: English for Special Purposes ESL: English Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching M.A : Master Degree LI

ĐOÀN THỊ MINH THÚY

THE USE OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES FOR

IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST YEAR

STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF

MECHANICS AND METALLURGY

Việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Cao đẳng Cơ khí - Luyện Kim, Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

HA NOI – 2012

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐOÀN THỊ MINH THÚY

THE USE OF GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES FOR

IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILLS OF THE FIRST YEAR

STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF

MECHANICS AND METALLURGY

Việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để cải thiện kỹ năng nói của sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Cao đẳng Cơ khí - Luyện Kim, Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10

SUPERVISOR : VĂN THỊ THANH BÌNH, M.Ed

HA NOI – 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of figures and tables iv

Table of contents v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Research questions 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: Literature Review 4

1.1 Speaking skill and teaching speaking skill 4

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking 4 1.1.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill 4 1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson 5

1.2.1 Definitions of group work 5 1.2.2 Types of group work 6 1.2.3 The advantages and disadvantages of using group work 7 1.2.3.1 Advantages 7

1.2.3.2 Disadvantages 7 1.2.4 Group size 9 1.2.5 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in 9

group work activities

1.2.5.1 The role of the teacher 9

Chapter 2: Research methodology 18

speaking class

speaking skill

2.2.2.4 Difficulties faced by the teachers when applying group work 34

in the speaking class

Chapter 3: Findings and recommendations 37

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CMM: College of Mechanics and Metallurgy

ESP: English for Special Purposes

ESL: English Foreign Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

M.A : Master Degree

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Charts

Chart 1: Students’ assessment for the teachers’ frequent use of group work

Chart 2: Student’ appreciation of their participation in group work

Chart 3: The frequency of difficulties

Chart 4: Factors causing difficulties

Chart 5 : Ways students wanted teachers to put them in group

Chart 6: Activities students wished teachers to select for group work

Chart 7: Steps students expect teacher to follow in organizing group work

Chart 8: Ways teacher often used to group students

Chart 9: Activities teachers often selected for group work

Chart 10: Steps teacher followed in organizing group work

Chart 11: Things the teachers often do when the students work in groups

Chart 12: Teachers’ solutions to overcome their obstacles

Tables

Table 1: Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skill

Table 2: Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work

Table 3: Students’ appreciation of group work for the benefit of speaking skill Table 4: Teachers’ opinion on teaching speaking skill

Table 5: Teachers’ opinions on the use of group work to teaching speaking skill Table 6: The ways teachers prepared and the stages teachers used for group work Table 7: Difficulties faced by the teachers when applying group work in the speaking class

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Today, English has become an international language It is spoken as a second language and an official language in many countries, and millions of people speak English as a foreign language Besides, English is considered the medium of communication in many fields such as science, technology, aviation, internet, commerce, and so on Therefore learning and teaching English are getting more and more important to non-native nations of English, Vietnam is not an exception

In Vietnam, English has been used more and more widely, and it has become the most popular foreign language in the country Thus, people have a great concern about learning English As a result, English is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges, and the number of ordinary people learning English nowadays is also on the rise

To keep pace with the demand of English usage in our society, learners' communicative competence as well as learner-centered learning are the prefered of approaches to foreign language teaching today However, for a long time, the teaching of English at The College of Mechanics and Mettalurgy (CMM) was performed with traditional teaching methods Much attention is paid to grammatical competence whereas other aspects of language learning such as communicative competence do not receive enough attention As a result, though their goal of learning a foreign language is to communicate in that language, many Vietnamese students still find it challenging when talking to, not to mention communicating successfully with English speaking people

As a teacher of English at CMM, I am aware of the importance of helping students become communicators of English, and one of the most effective ways that I have

to used to enhance my students' speaking ability is to use group work activities in teaching It is my observation that these activities created more chances for students

to communicate with one another in the medium of English Morever, students often appeared less anxious when they worked in groups

For the above reason, the topic of the use of group work activities for improving speaking skills of the first year students at CMM was chosen for this thesis in the hope to study whether group work really help students improve their spoken English

2 Aims of the study

The study is aimed at investigating to clarify how group work is used in the speaking class of the 1st year students at CMM To be specific, the objectives of the study are :

- To clarify students’ opinions of the use of group work activities in the speaking class

- To find the factors that influence the teachers in their application of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at CMM

- To suggest practical recommendations for the possibility of group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at CMM

3 Scope of the study

To improve speaking skill of the 1st year students at CMM, the researcher intends to investigate the current situation of using group work in the speaking class of the 1st year students at CMM and then making some suggestions for improvement it The study was carried out with the participation of 70 first-year students and 8 teachers

of English

4 Research questions

This study is implemented to find answers to the following research questions:

1 What do the students think of the use of group work activities in the speaking class of the first year students at CMM?

2 What facilitates and hinders the teachers from using group work in the speaking class at CMM ?

3 What suggestions for improvement should be used to make group work activities successful in speaking class of the first year students at CMM?

5 Methods of the study

In order to examine the situation of the study, this research used questionnaires The data collected from the questionnaires (both for students and teachers), will be analyzed and generalized

6 Design of the study

The study has three main parts as follows:

Part 1: Introduction

This part introduces the rationale, the aims, the scope and the design of the study

Part 2: Development

This part consists of three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

Chapter 2: Research methodology

Chapter 3: Findings and recommendations

Part 3: Conclusion

This part summaries all the major findings and suggestions The limitations of the

study and recommendations for the further studies are also include in this part

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Speaking skill and teaching speaking skill

1.1.1 Definitions of speaking

There are various definitions of speaking and the popular acceptance comes from

Jones, R (1989:86) who defines speaking as “Speaking is a form of communication,

so it is important that what you say conveyed in the most effective way.” Speaking

is one of the basic skills that must be mastered by students since it is very important for them to communicate in the class or outside the class They must practice it especially in learning teaching in order to be fluent, without an ability to speak, it would be impossible to have a natural communication among people Brown and

Yule (1989:14) state in their book “Speaking is to express the needs request,

information, service, etc.” The speakers say a word to the listener not only to

express what in their mind but also to express what they need Most people might spend their everyday life communicating with others Bygate (1987) claims that

"speaking is a skill which deserves attention as much as the literary skills in both native and foreign languages" When students speak in a confident and comfortable

way, they can interact better in real daily situations Because of this, it is necessary

to encourage the development of the students' ability of fluency in spoken English Developing fluency implies taking risks by using language in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere-an atmosphere of trust and support Speaking fluently, of course, involves speaking easily and appropriately with others

1.1.2 Teaching and learning speaking skill

People use oral language as their most means of communication-all people have developed a form of oral language Skill and fluency in speaking have dramatic effects upon life in general The recent emphasis on communication has focused particular attention on ways of promoting speaking skills This is a question of developing not only language competence but also language use Speaking activities

aim, therefore, to develop the confidence, desire, and ability to use the target language accurately and appropriately and effectively for the purposes of communication as well Teaching speaking is to prepare students to be able to use language How this preparation is done and how successful it is depend on how we

as teachers understand our aims For students, learning to speak a foreign language

is considered to be one of the most difficult aspects of language learning To help students be able to use that foreign language to express themselves intelligibly, reasonably, accurately without too much hesitation, teachers must provide them with an environment within in which they can communicate freely, and in which they can work together independently with only the minimum amount of direction from the teachers In the light of what is known about the nature of language learning process and given many demands while speaking activities can make learners, it is important to set attainable objectives and to have realistic expectation about learners' achievements This requires a certain attitude on the part of the teachers towards the learners' performance, particularly with regard to the class organization as group work and the use of communicative strategies to teach

simultaneously

1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson

1.2.1 Definitions of group work

Group work has been incorporated into language teaching and learning in most parts of the world since the emergence of the CLT up work, in a language class, is a co-operative during which students share aims and responsibilities to complete a task assigned by the teacher in groups or in pairs

According to Sprott (cited in Metcalfe 1959:9), " a group as a number of people

who interact with another one, who are psychological aware of one another and who perceive themselves to be a group" Doff (1988:137) defines 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.”

In spite of the different definitions, it can be said that in group work, all the members have chances to cooperate with others They learn to negotiate to listen to different opinions They participate more equally and in most cases they feel free to experiment and use the language In group work, the focus is not only on the product but also on the process and the skills which are activated in order to achieve it

1.2.2 Types of group work

Davis (1993) divides group work into 3 types:

- Informal learning groups

- Formal learning groups

- Study teams

Informal learning groups are temporary clusterings of the students with a single

class session Informal learning groups can be initiated, for example, by asking students to turn to partners and spend several minutes discussing a question the teacher has raised The teacher can also form groups of three or five to solve a problem Informal learning groups can be organized at anytime in a class of any size

to check on students' understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity

to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace Informal learning groups have a short lifetime ranging from a few minutes to the class period With informal learning groups, the tasks are generally created quickly, for example, the

teacher may say "discuss the questions with your partners" and have little

explanation

Formal learning groups are teams established to complete a specific task, such as

perform a lab experiment, write a report, or carry out a project These groups may complete their task in a single class session or over several weeks Typically, students work together until the task is finished and their work is graded Formal learning groups can last several days or several weeks They require more planning They also have greater explanation

Study teams are long-term groups (usually existing during the course of a semester)

with stable membership whose primary responsibility is to provide members with

support, encouragement, and assistance in completing course requirements and assignments Study teams also inform their members about lectures and assignments when someone has missed a session The larger the class the more complex the subject matter, the more valuable study teams can be

1.2.3 The advantages and disadvantages of using group work

1.2.3.1 Advantages

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)

1.2.3.2 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 do 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 self-esteem, 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)

1.2.4 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 Four-member 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 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in group work activities

When students work in groups, teachers must assist them These are some of the things they have to do:

1.2.5.1 The role of the teacher

Select activities carefully: Teachers should ensure that the activities can be done

reasonably well with language and students It means that teachers should decide what they are going to pre- teach and let students ask for what they realise they need

Work out the instructions for an activity carefully: Presenting the activity to the

class will be a major factor in its success Teachers must keep instructions simple, and use mother tongue if necessary

Present the activity to the class: Teachers can use mother tongue if necessary;

however, try to use English as much as possible because both their explanation and evaluation activities are very real use of language in a classroom situation Teachers should give plenty of examples and students a "trial run"

Monitor the students' performance: While students are working in groups, teachers

must move around the class and to listen to them in order to find out how the students are getting on Teachers can also join groups and work as a member Teachers should not correct mistakes as a rule, but make a note of them and use them as the basis of feedback

Provide feedback: There is a set of ways of providing feedback For example,

teachers may ask students to give their ideas first before giving their opinion A major kind of feedback is often concerned with language If during monitoring of the activities, teachers have detected mistakes, they may choose to point these out to the class afterwards Alternatively, they may use errors they have noted as the basis for remedial or further teaching

Keep a record: It is important to keep a record of the activities teachers have done

with the class, together with any comments on the students' performance Teachers should also note down any ideas for further activities which occur to them or modifications of existing ones

Donn Byrne (1986:77)

1.2.5.2 The role of each student in group work activities

According to Ruben (1998) students have to implement two kinds of roles in order

to accomplish group goal They are task roles and group building and maintenance roles

Task roles: When working in groups, students work together to gather information,

make recommendations, solve a problem or complete a specific task Task roles as a contributor, a analyzer, a coordinator, a recorder and a encourager are performed by students As a contributor, each student takes part in organizing the group's work, making all group members understand the task, taking the group's questions, or

proposing new ideas or changing way of regarding the group problem goal As an analyzer, he helps solve the problems, move the group rapidly to the core of the problem and examine the reasoning behind each contribution to the discussion As a coordinator, he shows or clarifies the relationships among various ideas and suggestions and tries to pull them together As a recorder, he writes down the group's responses, data or collection on a group response sheet or writes down the product of discussion As an encourager, he offers support or encouragement to group members and keeps others' feeling comfortable when working together

Group building and maintenance roles: These roles require all the members to

assume responsibility for promoting, building and maintaining positive attitudes and

a positive group spirit Maintenance roles are concerned with the feelings of individual members and the emotional behavior of the group Each member of the group acts as an active listener, a compromiser and a follower As an active listener, the student recognizes the contributions of the others and responds with specific verbal or non - verbal reinforcement For example, he can nod his head, smile or say

" good" or "great idea" As a compromiser, he, together with other members, makes decisions when a discussion of two prominent positions emerges He also makes attempts to reconcile disagreement or relieves tension in conflict situations through jesting As a follower, he accepts the ideas of the others in a passive role

Leader roles: Each group should have its own leader If the student is appointed the

leader of the group by the teacher or his friends or he may volunteer, he will serves

as a link between the group and the teacher and among group members It means that his function is not to dominate the group but to coordinate the group members' activities

1.2.6 Some common activities for group work

Many ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by

"interacting" Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim 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 ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task The list of some common activities is given below

Information gap

In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs or in groups One or two students have the information that other partners do not have and they will share information Information gap activity serves purposes such as solving a problem, collecting information Each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need This activity is effective because everybody has opportunity to talk extensively in the target language

Discussion

This activity is often used in the new textbook In this activity, the students may aim

to arrive, may aim at a conclusion, share ideas about an events, find solutions in their discussion groups Before the discussion, teachers have to set the purpose of the discussion activity In this way discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by

discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas It is important that whatever the aim of group discussion is, students should be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support and check for clarification

Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them become socialized After interviews, each student can present his or her results of the interviews to the class To help students carry out interviews effectively, teachers should provide a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow

Role- play:

One of the ways of getting students to speak is role-playing Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles In role play activity, teacher can give information to the students such as who they are and what they think or feel

Communication games: These activities are often designed in class According to

Byrne and Rixon (1979), even though games are often associated with fun, teacher should not lose sight of their pedagogical values, particularly in second language teaching Games are effective because they provide motivation, lower students' stress, and give them the opportunity for real communication Naturally when playing games, students are trying to win or to beat other teams for themselves or

on the behalf of their team They are so competitive while playing because they want to have a turn to play, to score points and to win In the class, students will definitely participate in the speaking activities

Problem solving: Problem-solving activities as well as others are utilized in the

class to facilitate communicative skills The students are often in groups, then they talk together to find out a solution for a problem or task given The problem solving activities stimulate the students to talk and to listen to the others

Drama: Drama is a more formalized form of role-play and simulation, with a

pre-planned 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

But they are time consuming and rarely can form part of a typical school curriculum

Projects: Mainly for young learners who can greatly benefit from hands-on

approaches to language, certain projects can be rewarding indeed For example, the teacher choose a topic on environment, various small groups could each be doing different things: Group A creats an environmental bulletin board for the rest of the school; group B develops fact sheets; group C make a threee dimensional display; group D puts out a newsletter for the rest of the school; group E develop a skit, and

so on

Opinion exchange: Opinion exchange is a difficult teachnique 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 In opinion exchanges, 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

1.2.7 How to design group work activities effectively

1.2.7.1 Forming students in groups

According to Byrne in Longman Handbook for Language Teachers, the group size should be worked out in the relation to the total number of students in class Usually, a group of 3 to 5 is appropriate in speaking lessons Teachers can form groups themselves, normally on the basis of the mixed class ability (i.e good and weak students together), since as a rule learners do help one another Sometimes, teachers want the students to work together on tasks which have been selected to suit their abilities It means that teachers form students of more or less equal ability,

so that they will be free to give their attention to those who most need help Byrne also suggests that each group should have an identifying label (i.e name or number) and set position in the classroom to work in so that when students are asked to work

in groups, they can do so with the minimum fuss and delay Usually group work will involve some re-arrangement of the classroom furniture When concerning the

allocation of members into groups, Hurd (2000) states that most selection methods fall into four categories They are:

Description of

the method

Students are randomly selected in groups

Students form their own groups

Students are selected in different groups based on criteria (e.g mark, skill )

Students are selected in groups based on their preference for a particular topic Advantages of

the method

- Easy to manage

- Students find it fair

Students have their own choice, so they find it easy to work

in groups

- Students find it fair

- Students can work with compatible members

- Students find it comfortable when working with other members with the same interest

- Shirking will be reduced

Disadvantages

of the method

- Students have no choice to form their group

- Students mostly tend to choose with their close friends

- Students do not find it fair

- That students with bad marks working together in

a group leads to bad results

- Can be time- consuming

- Selection bias, may not break up fiends

- Group size is affected as there are two few or two may nominations for a particular topic

Although there are a set of way forming group, it can be reported that there is no fixed rule to form students in group Teachers had better try different ways at

different occasion in order to find out the most suitable one which helps his students

to work most effectively in such groups

1.2.7.2 Preparing for students to work in group

When working in groups, many students often experience the feeling of having nothing to say on the subject, which will certainly be an obstacle for communication process and make them feel inhibited or less confident to speak in group work Therefore, preparing students well for the group work must involve the pre-teaching

of the relevant language Teachers also explain to students why they are doing activities of this kind One thing important is that teachers should assist their students to generate some ideas through mini discussion or through brainstorming

1.2.7.3 Monitoring group work activities

When discussing monitoring group work, Jaques (1984) says that it is essential that teachers should monitor the groups but not to hover Sharing the same idea, Cohen (1986) emphasizes on the supportive supervision of the teachers for the students in group work activities This type includes the following of the teachers' roles:

- giving feedback

- redirecting group with questions

- encouraging group to solve its own problem

1.2.7.4 Ending group work activities

To sustain students' motivation to involve in the groupwork activities, it is necessary that teachers should know how to end groupwork effectively Therefore,

after students have finished their task, teachers should ensure that groups' performance is accessed and that the groups know their members are doing who needs more assistance in completing the task and lazy students need to know they cannot let others do all the work while they sit silently Giving groups an opportunity to evaluate other groups' performance is also important This creates competition among groups and each member of the groups tries their best to work effectively to become the winner

1.3 Summary

This chapter provided the theoretical background relevant to aspects concerning the topic of the study Firstly, it presents the general discussion of speaking skill and teaching and learning it Then it gives the theories relating to the groupwork activities in teaching and learning speaking skill such as definitions of groupwork, advantages and disadvantages of using group work activities, discussion on the roles of the teachers and students , emphasis on effective groupwork activity design

in speaking lessons

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Design and methodology

2.1.1 The setting of the study

The College of Mechanics and Metallurgy (CMM) is a technical college which trains skilled workers and practical engineers of engineering and metallurgy for the whole country It is located in Thai Nguyen - a northern mountainous province Accordingly, the teaching and learning conditions are not very good The college does not have special rooms for students to learn the foreign languages The teaching facilities are only textbooks, board, and chalk and cassette There is not any modern equipment for teaching and practising English The reference books are very poor in the college library In addition, the class size is large of about 70 students Consequently, the teaching and learning of English is limited

English is a common and compulsory subject at CMM The students learn totally 11 credits in which 8 credits are for General English and 3 for ESP The teachers of English Language Teaching Division are in charge of setting the syllabus, choosing

teaching materials for the course In here New Headway Elementary written by John

& Liz Soars is chosen to be the main course book for all the students at CMM at the early stage (General English) For ESP, students learn the in-house materials compiled by the English teachers of the college

When students enter the college, they are at different levels of English language proficiency Most of them studied English, some of them learnt French, Chinese or Russian at high school However, students are not divided into different groups depending on their levels of language proficiency, because there has never been an official examination to classify them Accordingly, all of them take the same course

as the beginners of English language In addition, the limited class time and large class size, lack of reference books… are big problems for effective teaching and learning

In class, although speaking skill is not seperately taught, particular emphasis is placed on speaking and listening The primary goal is to teach communicate competence, that is the ability to communicate in English in a like-real situations The activities in the book are pair work, discussion (mostly appear in any small lesson of each unit) and whole class activities involving information sharing and role-play to encourage real communication

Speaking skill at our college is considered to be so important that any student has to take an oral exam at the end of each semester which includes 2 parts (individual response and discussion) Discussion part is more emphasized In this way, students have the opportunities to personalize the English language they have learnt, making full use of their own knowledge and experiences to express their own ideas and opinions

2.1.2 Data collection instrument

The survey questionnaire is one of the most effective instruments for collecting data

in social science Advantages of using questionnaire which Gillham (2000) highlights are: less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias and analysis of answer is straightforward The researcher used the survey questionnaire as the main sources to fulfill its aims Two sets of questionnaires were designed to investigate the teachers’ and the students’ opinion about the use of group work in the speaking classes of the 1st year students at CMM Clear instructions were given when the questionnaire was administered

The first is the questionnaire for students which includes 11 questions written only

in English, was administered to the 70 first year students The questionnaire was divided into 5 main parts:

Part 1: Students’ opinion on speaking (Questions 1,2)

Part 2: Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work (Question 3)

Part 3: Students’ judgment of the use of group work in their speaking class at CMM (Questions 4, 5, 6)

- Students’ judgment of teachers’ frequency of the use group work (by percent) (Question 4)

- Students’ judgment of their participation in group work (Question 5)

- Students’ judgment of group work for the benefit of speaking skill (Question 6)

Part 4: Difficulties students have experienced when working in groups (Questions 7, 8) Part 5: Students’ desires in learning speaking through group work (Questions 9, 10, 11) The second is the questionnaire for the teachers including 14 questions written only

in English, was administered to 8 teachers This is divided into 5 parts:

Part 1: Teachers’ opinions on speaking skill (Question 1)

Part 2: Teachers’ opinion on the use of group work to teaching speaking skill (Questions 2, 3, 4, 5)

Part 3: Teachers’ current teaching methods in using group work in the speaking class (Questions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11)

Part 4: Difficulties the teacher has experienced when applying group work in the speaking class (Questions 12,13)

Part 5: The teachers’ solutions to overcome their difficulties (Question 14)

For futher information of the collected statistical data, the researcher read the completed surveys and dialogued with each teacher and some specific students to explain clearly their opinions

2.1.3 The participants

2.1.3.1 The teachers

The teachers asked are all teaching at CMM and all teaching the first year students There are eight female teachers Their ages are from 24 to 35 years old with at least two years’ experience in teaching English They were mostly trained in Vietnam, at Thai Nguyen College of Education, and Hanoi National University, College of Foreign Languages Among them, three have MA from from National University, College of Foreign languages They are all professionally experienced with EFL

2.1.3.2 The students

The study is conducted with the voluntary participation of 70 first-year students They are all in the same class CDCK49A of the Mechanics Faculty The numbers of males and females are not equivalent: 66 males and 4 females All the students are

at the ages from 19 to 24, and come from different provinces in the North and Central of Vietnam When entering the college, the students are at different levels of English language proficiency Most of them studied English, some of them learnt French, Chinese or Russian at high school Nevertheless, students are not divided into different groups depending on their levels of language proficiency, because there has never been a placement test in the college to classify them So some of them are relatively good and active while some remain passive and quiet in the speaking class

2.2 Preliminary results

In this part, the preliminary results will be presented before the concrete result

2.2.1 Student survey

2.2.1.1 Students’ opinions on speaking skill

1

a English speaking is compulsory at your college 24%

c Speaking is necessary for your future job 93%

2

c Little important 0

Table 1: Students’ opinions on the importance of speaking skill

According to the statistics in table 1 above, most of students asked (93%) say that speaking is necessary for their future job and 90 % of them are interested in speaking skill while a small amount of them (24 %) says they learn speaking skill because English is compulsory at their college They find English really interesting

while there are only a few students (16%) who want to learn speaking skill just to pass the oral test Also from this table, an interesting fact was that 97% of the respondent said that speaking skill was very important to them, none of the students answered that speaking skill was not important

In short, it can be concluded that speaking skill is very important and necessary to all the first year students at CMM Most of them find it very interesting

2.2.1.2 Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work

How much do you like to pratice

speaking skill ?

Not at all Little Rather Very

Table 2: Students’ opinions on learning speaking skills in group work

Table 2 shows that all the students asked (100%) reported that they had very little favor for working individually, 46% of them rather like working in a small group, and 51% really like working in group in the speaking skill And no student said that they did not like working on their own From this, it can be understood that most of the students see the importance of working in group for the better speaking skill Additionally, when being asked, majority of them supposed that, among the four skills, group work was the most appropriate for speaking skill Next came reading skill and writing skill Listening skill ranked last for group work appropriateness

To sum up, the analysis of data in table 2 reveals that most of the students like to learn English is groups an they think speaking skill is the most appropriate skill for applying group work

2.2.1.3 Students’ appreciation of the use of group work in the speaking class at CMM

Always Often Sometimes Never

Chart1: Students’ assessment for the teachers’ frequent use of group work

As can be seen from chart 1, 29% of the students answered their teachers always used group work in the speaking class at CMM and the rest 71% supposed that their teachers often apply these activities Some students said that the teachers' frequent use of group work really encouraged and promoted them to work actively and creat English environment for them to pratice the target language as well

Work with great interest Remain silent all the time Chat with other group

members about other topics

Speak Vietnamese

Chart 2: Student’ appreciation of their participation in group work

From chart 2, when working in groups in the speaking class, 50% of the students worked with great interest and the number of the students who did not participate in group work by chatting with other groups or speaking Vietnamese is so big (20% and 24%) that it must be looked into consideration about the group work among these students In addition to that, the number in the table also implies that some