A study on using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for the members of an english club at vung ca

ABSTRACT This research generally attempts to investigate using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for students in the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School VCVBHS.. T

MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

HANOI – 2014

MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA, PhD

HANOI – 2014

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Ms Hoàng Thị

Xuân Hoa for her constant encouragement, precious advice and especially for her valuable corrections throughout this study There is no doubt that without her help, this thesis would

be impossible to be accomplished

My sincere thanks are also sent to the lecturers of the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies of University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lessons and whole-hearted advices

I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, magazines, and other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been reflected and developed in the study

I am indebted to my family and friends who have encouraged and supported me very much in the completion of this paper If there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not have been fulfilled

Last but not least, I would like to thank the students who willingly took part in the survey of this paper

ABSTRACT

This research generally attempts to investigate using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for students in the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School (VCVBHS)

The study has been conducted for the purpose of clarifying how groupwork are used in speaking lessons of the students in the English club at VCVBHS and investigating the difficulties of using groupwork activities in teaching and learning speaking skill for students of the English club at VCVBHS The data were obtained through the analysis of students’ questionnaire, interviews with four English teachers who are controlling directly the English club The findings of the research revealed that groupwork activities were frequently used to improve the speaking skill The use of groupwork activities were also beneficial for both teachers and learners However, the study also found out some students’ difficulties such as low proficiency, their passive way of learning styles, using Vietnamese when working in groups…, and some teachers’ difficulties in using groupwork activities in such as lack of time, large and multi-level classes,…The author also gave some recommendations to make groupwork activities effective and successful in speaking lessons and to help students in the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School to improve their speaking skill

It is hoped that this thesis will help other English teachers be aware of the benefits

of groupwork activities and apply them in teaching English speaking more successfully and effectively

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VCVBHS: Vung Cao Viet Bac High School ESL : English as a Second Language

LIST OF TABLES

TABLES

Table 1: Students’ opinions on learning English speaking skill

Table 2: The teachers’ frequent use of groupwork activities

Table 3: The students and teachers' opinions on benefits of groupwork activities Table 4: Organization of groupwork activities in speaking activity

Table 5: Kinds of groupwork activities that students want to participate in

Table 6: The difficulties students had when working in group work

Table 7: The students' suggestions to make group work activities in speaking lesson effective

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationales of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Research questions 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Methods of the study 3

7 Design of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Speaking skill 5

1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill 5

1.1.2 Concepts of speaking (spoken language) 5

1.1.3 Characteristics of speaking 6

1.2.4 The importance of speaking skill in language teaching and learning context 7 1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson 8

1.2.1 Definitions of group work 8

1.2.2 How to organize group work activities effectively 9

1.2.2.1 Forming students in groups 9

1.2.2.2 Preparing for students to work in group 10

1.2.2.3 Monitoring groupwork activities 10

1.2.2.4 Ending groupwork activities 10

1.2.3 Benefits of using groupwork activities in language teaching 11

1.2.4 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in groupwork activities 12 1.2.4.1 The role of the teacher 12

1.3.4.2 The role of each student in groupwork activities 13

1.3 Summary 14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 An overview of the English club at VCVBHS 15

2.2 The subjects of the study 16

2.2.1 Student subjects 16

2.2.2 Teacher subjects 16

2.3 Research questions 17

2.4 Data collection instruments 17

2.4.1 Questionnaire 17

2.4.2 Semi-structured interview 18

2.5 Summary 18

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS 19

3.1 The students’ and teachers’ opinions on learning and teaching English speaking skill 19

3.2 The students and teachers' opinions on the benefits of groupwork activities 20

3.3 The students’ and teachers’ organization of groupwork activities in speaking activity 23

3.4 Difficulties the teachers and students have faced when using groupwork activities26 3.5 The teachers’ solutions to overcome their difficulties 27

3.6 The students' suggestions to make groupwork activities in speaking lessons effective 28

3.7 The teachers' suggestions to help students use groupwork activities in speaking lesson effectively 29

3.8 Summary 29

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 30

4.1 Research question 1: How groupwork activities are used in the speaking lessons of the students in the English club at VCVB high school? 30

4.2 Research question 2: What are the difficulties the teachers and the students in the English club at VCVBHS face when using groupwork activities? 31

4.2.1 Students’ difficulties 31

4.2.2 Teachers’ difficulties 32

4.3 Some recommendations to make groupwork activities effective and successful in

speaking lessons and to help students to improve speaking skill 33

4.4 Summary 34

PART C: CONCLUSION 35

1 Conclusions 35

2 Limitations of the study 36

3 Suggestions for further research 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I Survey questionnaire for students I APPENDIX 2 IV INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IV

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationales of the study

English has become one of the most important languages and powerful languages

in the world In Vietnam, Ministry of Education and Training has put more emphasis on teaching and learning foreign languages, especially English than ever before In recent years, English has been considered one of some important subjects and a compulsory one for Vietnamese students "Better English, better careers" was the answer given by many of them when they told about their purpose of learning this language It can not be denied that this international language may help Vietnamese students prepare better for their career in the future because it does not only equip learners with a necessary source of information of social and culture knowledge but also gives them up-to-date information concerning a different issues in our society nowadays Especially, our country's recent regional and global participation has been increasing the demand for English speaking people, who are wanted to communicate with the outside world and access up-to-date technology

In response, the teaching and learning English has been paid much attention to, which is shown by remarkable changes in curriculum, studies accompanied as well as teaching methods which are all applied for the four English skills As a matter of fact, speaking skill “the most important aspect of learning a second language” (Nunan, 1989) is still a challenge for Vietnamese learners who still show a low motivation in speaking English Therefore, together with this trend, speaking skills have also become the focus of language teaching as far as the objectives of English course at schools and universities are concerned As their major subject is English, each of the students at English club, Vung Cao Viet Bac High School is always aware of how important speaking skill to them However, most students at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school are from different mountainous areas in the northern of Vietnam Maybe they were good at grammar but they have a lot of difficulties in speaking English.They feel shy when they speak and they do not have a lot

of chances to practice English in communication or for interaction in their daily life that is why speaking this language has not had the best result Therefore, it is necessary to help the students of English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school to have more chances to communicate with each other as well as to speak to each other in a so-called close-to-real English speaking condition One of the strategies that reflects the principle of learner -

centeredness is groupwork activity According to Nunan and Lamb (1996 : 142) group work is designed as any classroom activity in which learners perform collaborative tasks with one or more speakers It has been considered one of the main changes to the dynamics

of classroom interaction wrought by students-centered teaching They hope that by using this teaching method, they can help their learners improve their English and use it effectively and fluently in communication

The effort of this thesis is trying to determine effective methods in teaching speaking skill for learners and to help students to improve speaking skills Having students work in groups not only makes them more involved in learning but also give them opportunities to practice foreign language There are many reasons for choosing the study but the above reasons are the main ones that encourage the researcher to choose the thesis:

“A study on using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for the members of an English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school”

2 Aims of the study

This study is aimed at investigating the reality of the use of groupwork activities in speaking activities of the members in the English club at VCVBHS To be specific, the aims of the study are:

+ To clarify how groupwork activities are used in speaking lessons of the students in the English club at VCVBHS

+ To investigate the difficulties of using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for students of the English club at VCVBHS

3 Significance of the study

This study helps to determine how groupwork activities are used to improve English speaking skill It provides language teachers with the rationale to carry out groupwork activities in class to improve students’ speaking skills This study also gives suggestion to ESL teachers to develop successful groupwork activities as they can identify the major problems faced by themselves and by their students Thus, teachers are conscious with the advantages of group work in teaching and learning process

In addition, the students will appreciate and work with the strengths of others This will increase learning, planning and discussion skills and eventually improve their speaking capabilities The students will be involved as participants and decision-makers in oral groupwork activities Besides, the value of group work in ESL classroom will be

determined Hence, this study is helpful to provide knowledge on ways to develop natural ways in speaking activities

4 Research questions

The above aims of the study are to answer the two following research questions:

1 How groupwork activities are used in speaking lessons of the students in the English club at VCVBHS?

2 What are the difficulties the teachers and the students in the English club at VCVBHS face when using groupwork activities?

Basing on the research questions and the result of the study, the writer gives recommendations to make groupwork activities more effective and successful in speaking lessons and to help students in the English club at VCVBHS to improve their speaking skill

5 Scope of the study

Within the scope of a graduation paper and due to the limitation of time, the researcher just hopes to concentrate on investigation how groupwork activities are used in speaking activities of the English club, some difficulties the teachers and the students face when using groupwork , and then suggesting some recommendations to make groupwork activities more effective and successful in speaking activities as well as help students in the English club at VCVBHS to improve their speaking skill In addition, the data for the study are collected among fifty students in English club and four teachers of English who are responsible for controlling the English club at VCVBHS

6 Methods of the study

This study employs a both quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture about what is investigated In this study, qualitative data is gained from semi-structured interviews and quantitative data is achieved from questionnaire The questionnaires were designed for 50 students in the English club and semi-structured interviews were carried out in the form of informal conversation between the researcher and the four teachers who are directly controlling the English club

For the purpose of data collection, a set of questionnaire was designed to gather the students’ opinion on the group work activities to improve their speaking skills By using questionnaire, the privacy of the respondents was protected and the students were able to provide an honest response to facilitate the study Also, time was arranged efficiently when questionnaire was used as the respondents intended for the study could be reached without difficulty The questionnaire was prepared in Vietnamese language so that the students

could respond based on their understanding of the statements Most of the time, the researcher had to repeat the instructions in Vietnamese language so that every student can understand before starting their activities Thus, the reliability of the instrument was increased as the students could provide feedbacks or responses as accurately as possible

Interviews were conducted with four English teachers after the groupwork activities were carried out in class The interviews were semi-structured, whereby twelve questions were prepared before the interview and some additional questions were asked on the spot The researcher prepared twelve relevant questions to gather information and support the results obtained from the questionnaires According to Moser and Kalton (1971), interview

is described as a means of eliciting relevant information and personal opinion from the respondents The advantages of interviews include the ability to examine the teachers’ responses, take notes of their ideas and investigate their feelings about teaching speaking skill using groupwork activities

7 Design of the study

The thesis has three main parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction

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

Part B: Development

This part consists of four chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

Chapter 2: Research methodology

Chapter 3: Data analysis

Chapter 4: Findings and recommendations

Part C: Conclusion

This part summaries all the major findings and suggestions The limitations of the study and suggestions for the further studies are also included in this part

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

To begin with the study, in this chapter, the researcher will present some theoretical

background based on which the study will be carried out

1.1 Speaking skill

1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill

Speaking skill is a productive skill which requires a lot of back-up factors like knowledge, confidence, self esteem and enthusiasm (Mc Cathy, 1993) Speaking a second language, particularly, brings about its own prerequisites: exposure, consolidation, motivation as well as acknowledgment Whether we realize it or not, these determinant factors can be made to exist in a supportive learning environment ESL classroom

To beginners, speaking activities can appear more demanding and even threatening than plain writing Compared to writing as an academic skill, you can expect a bigger audience for speaking The audience may also be encouraging or vice versa Well-behaved and attentive audience may be supportive of learners' attempt to speak; nevertheless, distracting members will only dampen their spirit to try and speak up

As much as learners may dread speaking in a group or in front of the class, speaking as a skill is essential for acquisition and participation purposes Nowadays, every profession requires some extent of communicative competence and interpersonal skills The nature of speaking at the workplace presents itself in various forms: discussions, presentations, negotiation, and even debates Professions like medical doctors and IT specialists also require communication with clients, not to mention teaching, journalism, politics, and public relations In other words, ESL speaking class in this competitive era will have to do more than pair work speaking practice by the middle of the semester

1.1.2 Concepts of speaking (spoken language)

Speaking is of the most fundamental of human communication, and because we do

it constantly Different linguists have different concepts of speaking but they all agree with this idea

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Current English (2009), speaking is “the action of conveying information or expressing one’s thoughts and feelings in spoken

languages” While Brown (1994) defines speaking as an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information

Speaking is, however, a skill, which deserves attention as much as literary skills Our learners often need to speak with confidence so as to carry out many of their most basic transactions In language teaching and learning, speaking is considered a skill to practice and master Speech has its own skills, structures and convention, which are different from written language that is characterized by well-formed sentences and interrelated into highly structured paragraphs

In short, there are different concepts of speaking due to different approaches, namely, an action, a process and a skill In this study, the term “speaking” will be used to refer to a skill in the context of language teaching and learning

1.1.3 Characteristics of speaking

Speaking has the following characteristics:

First of all, its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking It is often spontaneous, open- ended, and evolving However, speech is not always unpredictable

Secondly, speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary, but also that they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce language owing how to use the linguistic components of English is part of a learner’s communicative competence It is recognized by Ur (1996) and other linguists that speaking skills includes two elements that complement each other namely: accuracy and fluency Accuracy is one of the most important criteria to measure one’s linguistic ability and to shelter language users from communication breakdowns Specifically, speaking English accurately means doing without or with few errors on not only grammar but vocabulary and pronunciation, as well Besides, fluency is also used as a criterion to measure one’s speaking competence Speaking fluently means being able to communicate one’s ideas without having to stop and think too much about what is saying

With a view to teaching and learning speaking skill effectively, both teachers and learners have to pay much attention to those features of speaking Teachers, therefore, can

use appropriate activities for practice and suitable approaches to teach speaking Moreover, students themselves get benefits from those activities

Lastly, speech has its own skills, structures, and conventions different from written languages A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and knowledge to succeed in a given speech act

In a nutshell, it is undeniable that speaking is the key to communication Speaking skill owns particular characteristics which differentiate it from other skills By considering what good speakers do, what speaking tasks can be used in class, and what specific needs learners report, teachers can help learners improve their speaking and overall oral competency

1.2.4 The importance of speaking skill in language teaching and learning context

Speaking, along with the other three skills including listening, reading and writing, help learners learn a language most effectively Good speaking skills help people communicate the fastest and the most effectively

Many language learners consider speaking ability the measure of knowing a language As for them, fluency is the ability to converse with others much more than the ability to read, write or comprehend oral language They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments on spoken communication Therefore, if learners do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunities to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning On the contrary, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learners’ motivation and making the English language classroom an enjoyable and dynamic place to

be Penny Ur (1996) points out four features of a successful speaking activity They are learners’ attendance, learners’ participation, motivation and appropriate language level With the criterion “learner-centered learning”, in a speaking practice lesson, teachers only play the role of facilitators and supervisors while students are encouraged to talk most of the time allotted to speaking activities Secondly, learners’ even participation also decides the success of a speaking activity The lesson should not be dominated by only some students but all get chances to talk Besides, by using motivated tasks, teachers involve students in communicating and then achieving task objectives After an activity, the

phonological attained by students such as pronunciation, stress, intonation, etc must be at a certain level, and an acceptable degree of fluency is also required

Obviously, the teaching way of speaking skill will directly affect much the learners’ language learning It is the task of a language teacher to create the best conditions for learning Byrne (1986) shows that the development of oral ability is a good source of motivation for most learners According to him, teachers have to try to finds ways of demonstrating to the learners that they are making progress in the language all the time; ensure that controlled practice, when you will monitor and want to correct the learners’ performance, is matched by opportunities for free expression; and finally also show the learners how to make the best use of the little they know

In conclusion, the teaching and learning speaking skill plays a very important role

in developing the learners’ ability to use the language for a variety of communicative purpose Both teachers and learners need to see the importance and relevance demonstrated above It is through activities of various kinds, both those designed to develop accuracy and those designed to promote fluency that the learners are not only able to learn language but also able to perceive that they are learning it because they are able to use it

1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson

1.2.1 Definitions of group work

Group work is considered one of the important factors to improve learners' communication Different individuals have developed many approaches to group work over the last time Group work is defined by Johnson, Johnson and Smith (1991, p15) as

"group work, in language class, is a co- operative activity, during which students share

aims and responsibilities to complete a task assigned by the teacher in groups or in pair"

It is said that, in group work, students learn to listen to different ideas, learn to discuss and

to negotiate They take part in equally and sometimes they feel comfortable to experiment and speak the language Every member has more opportunities for independence and they can have some learning decisions David (1993) shows that groupwork activity consists of three general types The first one is informal learning group The second one is formal learning group The last one is the study teams From these definitions of group type, the first one is more suitable for the term "groupwork activities" described in this study This

means that learners are required to have small groups from 3 or more members to work on

a speaking task

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 How to organize group work activities effectively

1.2.2.1 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

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

1.2.2.2 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

1.2.2.3 Monitoring groupwork 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 groupwork activities This type includes the following of the teachers' roles:

 giving feedback

 redirecting group with questions

 encouraging group to solve its own problem

1.2.2.4 Ending groupwork 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

1.2.3 Benefits of using groupwork activities in language teaching

There are many sorts of activities in speaking lesson They are discussions, dialogues, etc These activities are often used in group work and have a lot of advantages

Firstly, students' responsibility and autonomy are promoted through groupwork activities All students work together, share their ideas, and always want to reach the goal

in group activities In addition, one of their main tasks is being in charge of their groupwork activities Every learner is in charge of his own and each others' speaking, so there is a friendly help and high personal interdependence between them Doff states: Group work and pair wok encourage students to share ideas knowledge In a reading activity, students can help each other to explore the meaning of a text, in a discussion activity; students can give each other new ideas" (Doff, 1988)

Secondly, learners' participation, talking time and oral fluency are improved through group As for Ur (1996, p 232), students can have a learning task during small interaction in group work and it is considered as a kind of their activation and is very valuable for practicing of fluency in speaking There are 5 groups in a class; students can get 5 times as some chance to speak as in a big class

Finally, the students' motivation is improved through groupwork activities Groupwork activity can allow participants to use the language Moreover, it is one of the most effective ways to motivate participants to become more involved Richards and Loc Khart (1994) point out that, students not only play more active roles in the learning process but also get the benefits of sharing ideas with their team member through taking part in groups Doff (1988, p141) states " students fell less anxiety when they are privately than when they are on shown in front of the whole class Pair work and group work can help shy students, who would never say anything in a whole class activity"

The source of benefits of group work can be seen in many different fields, consists

of improving students speaking skill In the best groupwork activity in a language classroom, the participants of a learning group can benefit in several ways By dividing the class into group, a new social context in created whereby learners get the opportunity to

share individual cognitions with their group mates and decide on a conclusion based on the sum of these cognitions

In general, group work has had a lot of emphasis in language classroom and its activities are taken place in some ways of the second language instructions, especially in encouraging learners' face to face practice However, groupwork activities still have got many problems when some students control the group a lot and make others uncomfortable, so how to organize group work effectively is the big question for educators and language teachers, who consider group wok as one of the best ways to improve students' speaking skill

1.2.4 The role of the teacher and the role of each student in groupwork activities

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

1.2.4.1 The role of the teacher

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 groupwork 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

1.3.4.2 The role of each student in groupwork 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

1.3 Summary

In this literature review, the writer presented different basic issues relating to speaking skill and groupwrok activities that set the theoretical background for the current study Some understandings about speaking skill were presented first Next the writer has paid attention to concepts of speaking and characteristics of speaking belonging to one of the language learning strategies And then, she presented definition of groupwork, how to organize groupwork effectively and benefits of using groupwork activities in language teaching Finally, she gave the role of the teacher and the role of each student in groupwork activities

Also in this chapter, the writer found that speaking skill and groupwork activities play an important role in teaching and learning English Especially, groupwork activities has been used widely because of its value in improving students’ speaking skill, students’creativeness and autonomy as well as in helping teachers have successful and effective lectures With these mentioned aspects, the researcher set the basic theoretical background related directly to the study and research questions she is developing and synthesized the data and results collected during research time

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 An overview of the English club at VCVBHS

In our school, English is a compulsory subject and students show their great interest

in learning English The English club which was formed on 10th October, 2010 with ten original members met the demand of the students in school The English club was directly managed and operated by the leaders of VCVBHS and the teachers of English group In order to help the club work effectively and attract more students, leaders and members of the club chose slogan “Learning English with fun” and held the meeting once per two weeks In the meetings of the English club, the teachers gave the students controversial topics based on some different units in English textbook (English textbook 10, 11 and 12) and attractive activities for group discussion, debating and presentation The current members of the club is 50 students

Speaking club is one of the ways to students to improve their ability in speaking English in which as a place for language learners who meet together regularly to use English in casual practice, in other words, outside of classroom activities Because speaking is one of elements in a language in which someone can express his / her feeling, opinion and thought engaged in talk on conversation

English club can provide students many opportunities to practice their speaking and listening skills Students will improve their vocabulary, their pronunciation and their understanding of English The main objective of the English club is to recreational and consolidating opportunity for students to learn, practice English through various activities and equip them in speaking, listening and analytical skills Thus, it tries to enable the students to acquire communicative competence, that is, the ability to communicate in English in a like-real situations; to provide chances and encouraging atmosphere for students to express personal views about whatever they choose and to engage them in cooperative tasks

In short, The English Club is a place for students to use English in a fun environment In the English Club, the students will have the opportunities to practice many different skills based on real situations and to personalize the English language they have learnt, making full use of their own knowledge and experiences to express their own ideas and opinions

2.2 The subjects of the study

2.2.1 Student subjects

There are more than two thounsand students studying at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School, but there are only fifty students taking part in the English club Being the official members of the English club at the school, the students must have a good academic result and really love English subject The students here are ethnic minorities and come from remote and mountainous areas, so they are timid In the class, they often are quiet during the lesson and don’t dare to speak English or even ask for explanation from the teacher or friends The students participate in the English club because they love English subject Although their level of English is not quite high, their ability of English is the same That

is, most of the students have learnt English for at least 4 years at secondary schools However, the students often resist to participation in English lessons, they are very lazy taking part in pair or group work Maybe, they have knowledge of English grammar, but they are not confident to pronunciate or speak English This means they can do grammatical exercises quickly and correctly but they cannot speak fluently and most of them do not feel confident in communicating in English They usually use Vietnamese in group work This is maybe due to their low English proficiency

The students participating in the English club are in grade 10, 11 and 12 as well as

in the pre-university system, both males and females but females make up for a majority in the target population All 50 students in the English club are chosen to take part in the study The group of subjects for the student questionnaire included 32 female and 18 male from different grades (grade 10, 11, 12 and even pre-university) The student participants’ ages ranged from 16 to 19 years old A large number of them have learnt English since secondary schools

2.2.2 Teacher subjects

One very important factor to make the learning and teaching of English better is teachers There are 12 English teachers in English group at VCVBHS, but only four teachers directly control the English club and were selected to take part in the study One special point making the section different from the others is the young ages of the teachers About a half of the teachers are attending the MA courses so they are quite busy teaching