Trang 1 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON USING DIFFERENT METHODS TO IMPROVE GROUPWO
HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON USING DIFFERENT METHODS TO IMPROVE GROUPWORKING SKILLS IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF THE SECOND – YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP KHÁC NHAU ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG LÀM VIỆC NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Truong Quynh Anh Student number: 11317138 Supervisor: Le Thi Duyen, M.A Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON USING DIFFERENT METHODS TO IMPROVE GROUPWORKING SKILLS IN SPEAKING LESSONS OF THE SECOND – YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC PHƯƠNG PHÁP KHÁC NHAU ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG LÀM VIỆC NHÓM TRONG GIỜ HỌC NÓI CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Truong Quynh Anh Student number: 11317138 Supervisor: Le Thi Duyen, M.A ( Kí tên) Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I hereby state that I- Truong Quynh Anh, certify my authorship of the study entitled “A study on using different methods to improve group working skills in speaking lessons of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” The thesis is the study of my own research and that I have not used any sources other than those listed in the reference I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis at any other institution in order to obtain a degree Hung Yen, May 2021 Student Truong Quynh Anh ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the process of completing this graduation paper, I was encouraged by a lot of support, valuable ideas, and encouragement from my teachers, family, and friends Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms Le Thi Duyen, my supervisor for this graduation paper Her detailed ideas and useful tips helped me to shape my ideas and realize my goals She also provided me with useful materials as well as encouraged and facilitated my research Therefore, this article could not be completed without her invaluable support Secondly, I would like to express my special thanks to all the teachers of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their participation in the interview and for giving me lots of valuable comments Particularly, I would like thanks to all students of K17- the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their enthusiastic and effective cooperation in completing the questionnaire survey In addition, I warmly thank all my friends for their encouragement and support during the writing process Their material and spiritual support was a great motivation for me Finally, I was very grateful to my family, who have encouraged and supported me to complete this graduation thesis iii ABSTRACT The topic is to investigate the learning English speaking skills of second-year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages when applying group working skills at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education To achieve the above objectives, the researcher conducted a survey questionnaire among 88 second-year students of the second foreign language department and randomly interviewed students to know their views Based on the analysis from the above data sources, the researcher drew several important conclusions Research results show that the application of group work in speaking lessons has positive effects Finally, the findings were discussed, and some suggestions and implications for improving speaking skills for second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education were proposed for both students and teachers iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale of the study: 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 The scope of the study 1.5 Methodology of the study 1.6 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of speaking skills in the classroom Group working in a speaking lesson 2.1 Definition of group work and aspects related to group work 2.2 Benefits and drawbacks of using group work in the classroom 2.2.1 Benefits 2.2.2 Drawbacks 2.3 Teacher’s and students’ roles in group work 2.3.1 Teacher’s role 2.3.2 Students’ roles 2.4 Group work speaking activities 2.4.1 Group discussion 2.4.2 Debating 2.4.3 Cross grouping 2.5 Problems and solutions to make the group work in class effective 2.5.1 Some students talk too much or dominate the group 2.5.2 Some students speak too little or keep silent while working in group 2.5.3 Students not concentrate on listening to fellow group members 10 2.5.4 Students lack the social skills needed to work with others 10 v 2.6 Methods to improve group working in speaking lessons 10 2.6.1 Communicate every day 10 2.6.2 Establish team rules 10 2.6.3 Take a break 11 2.6.4 Roundtable 11 2.6.5 Three-Step Interview 11 2.6.6 Peer Editing 11 3.1 Introduction 13 3.1.1 The context of the study 13 3.2 The participants 13 3.2.1 The students 13 3.2.2 The teachers 14 3.3 Data collection instrument: 14 3.3.1 The survey questionnaires: 14 3.3.2 Interview questions: 15 3.3.3 Data collection procedure 16 3.4 Data analysis 16 3.4.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaires: 16 3.4.2 Data analysis of the interview questions 27 3.5 Main findings and discussion 29 3.6 Recommendation 30 3.6.1 For students 30 3.6.2 For teachers 31 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 32 4.1 Summary of the study 32 4.2 Limitation of the study 32 4.3 Suggestions for further study 32 REFERENCES 33 APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS III APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS V vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The perception of teachers and students about speaking English 17 Table 2: The group working activities students enjoy best in speaking lessons 22 Table 3: The group working activities teachers enjoy best in teaching speaking lessons 23 Table 4: Strategies in group working should be adapted in speaking classes for the secondyear English major students 26 LIST OF CHARTS Chart 01: Frequency of using group working in speaking lessons of teachers and students 17 Chart 02: Favorite number of teamwork members of students and teachers 18 Chart 03: Students' role in using group working in speaking lessons 20 Chart 04: Teacher’s role in using group working in speaking classes 21 Chart 05: Difficulties encountered in group work of students 21 Chart 06: Difficulties encountered in group work of teachers 22 Chart 07: Difficulties when doing group working in speaking lessons 24 Chart 08: Difficulties when teaching group working in speaking lessons 25 Chart 09: Frequency of doing group working in speaking lessons 27 Chart 10: The importance of group working 28 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale of the study: Among the four language skills (speaking, writing, listening, reading), speaking can be considered as the skills that requires learners to spend a lot of time learning and practicing Vietnamese students have difficulty in acquiring this skills (Truc, 2011) This can result from the situation that schools generally did not focus on speaking from the beginning, the students focus on grammar and there is no oral or direct test of speaking ability As students are carefully prepared with written tests, focusing on grammar rules, reading text and writing, speaking is often ignored, as it is one of the keys that help learners to gradually explore this language Nowadays, the importance of improving students’ English in general and speaking skills, in particular, has been recognized by school leaders in Vietnam Language teachers are finding out new methods and techniques to motivate students to raise their voice in class One of the effective ways to apply much is group work Because of positive points that group work brings, group work tends to be used quite often in speaking lessons According to Harmer (1999), working in groups can significantly increase the time spent talking to each individual, encourage border skills to participate, cooperate and negotiate, promote learner autonomy by allowing students to self- decide on groups that are not instructed by the teacher, and free teachers from their usual role of the controller-drivercorrector As an under graduated student, the researcher realizes the significance of applying group work to help promote students’ interest in speaking However, I also face many challenges in implementing work in speaking lessons The researcher learned that there are not many studies on the use of group work in University in the developing area Therefore, the researcher carried out this study to understand this situation with practical evidence and find out solutions for problems related to using group work in speaking lessons So, after considering the above, I formulate the following research problem, which are improving group work skills in speaking lessons of the second- year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education The researcher hopes that this research will contribute a relatively full and detailed view about how to use this technique effectively 1.2 Aims of the study This study was carried with a view to investigating the possibility of using group work skill in the speaking lessons of the second- year English major at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education In detail, after observing speaking lessons with little implementation of group work at Faculty of Foreign Language, UTEHY, the researcher wants to: - Investigate the situation of using group working in speaking lessons of the secondyear at Faculty of Foreign Language, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education - Find out difficulties of using group working in speaking lessons of the second- year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education - Propose some methods to improve group working skills in speaking lessons at Faculty of Foreign Language, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 1.3 Research questions To achieve above aims, this study was carried out to find answers to the following research questions: 1.What are the situation of using group working in speaking lessons of the second- year at Faculty of Foreign Language, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education? 2.What are some difficulties in group working activities which the second-year English majors at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education meet in speaking lessons? 3.What are some methods to improve group working skills in speaking lessons of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education? 1.4 The scope of the study Due to the small scale of the study and the limitation of time, this study only focuses on examining how group-work techniques are used to improve the speaking skills of a group of 88 second-year students and English teachers at Faculty of Foreign Language, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 1.5 Methodology of the study To achieve the objectives stated, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used The qualitative data collected for the study come from interview questions The quantitative data were questionnaires 1.6 Organization of the study Chapter 1: Introduction - includes the rationale, aims, scope, significance and 26 Switching classes by adding some students from other class 6.8 50 12.6 75 31.2 100 0 and vice versa Meeting other teachers to share and discuss about group working activities to find suitable ones for each own class Equipping more technology supports to help students and teachers have much more options on group working activities Other: …………………………………………………………………… … Table 4: Strategies in group working should be adapted in speaking classes for the second-year English major students To solve the problem and the difficulties the students and teachers meet during current group working activities at UTEHY, some strategies are proposed as solutions to help improve the group working activities then raise the quality of speaking skills for the second-year English majors As we can see from the above chart, there are not many differences among the given strategies However, we can easily realize that students and teachers are not in favor of spending more time on group working (5,4% or respondents) and switching classes (6.8% or respondents) That means the time we have been using for group working activities is suitable and we not need to change the time frame Likewise, studying in the same class with the same partners or same team sounds still comfortable and more convenient than working with other unfamiliar students in other classes There are two strategies that students and teachers want to apply in the coming group working activities in speaking lessons at UTEHY: encouraging students to prepare and lead in some group working activities (30.3% or 26 respondents) as well as equipping more technology supports (31.2 or 27 respondents) Undoubtedly, with the rapid development of the fourth generation technology base (4.0 technology), teachers and students should change the way of gaining new knowledge and information sources via the internet We all aware of the importance of online teaching and studying depend on 27 technology especially when SARS-Covi (Covid -19) pandemic has been destroying and damaging the whole world in every field of the trademark With the supports of technology, we can easily teach and study relies on an enormous database, we can make our lessons more attractive and effective by using teaching and learning software For teacher: From table about strategies in group working should you use in speaking lessons at Faculty of Foreign Language, UTEHY to improve speaking skills for the secondyear English majors, it seems that teachers would like to change the types of group working with 100% In addition, equipping more technology devices (100%) or fix the old ones to let them ready to support the lessons is really essential Whereas, teachers don’t think that using more time (25%) is important Learning a Language needs more practice than sitting in a group too long but not make any products 3.4.2 Data analysis of the interview questions Question 1: How often you work in group in speaking lessons, and list some group activities you used? 10% 65% 5% 20% Very often Often Sometimes Never Chart 09: Frequency of doing group working in speaking lessons Some group activities students often used in speaking lessons: Debating, roundtable, peer editing and discussion From the chart 9, it indicates that the majority of students often work in groups through some activities like debating and roundtable There are 65% of respondents often work ingroup and there are 20% of the students very often work in-group In contrast, there are only a few students who work in groups not very often Ominously, there are 5% of students never work in-group That means these students may not feel comfortable with 28 group-working activities or they get trouble with working with other students in the class We should take the concern to these cases to help them join in groups and improve much more their speaking skills Question 2: What you think about the importance of group working in speaking lessons? 90 80 70 60 50 The importance of group working 40 30 20 10 Very important Important Easy Not important Chart 10: The importance of group working After investigating students through interviewing them, the result for the question of the importance of group working in speaking lesson is very important and important All the students answered that they find group working important even very important to the speaking skills They say that group working help them exchange, share their thought and ideas to other friends as well as seek for help whenever they are in trouble with a problem, a complicated knowledge or an explanation when they misunderstand things They also share that when they work in-group, they get much upgrade further than they themselves work by own Question 3: Do you have any difficulties when working in-group in speaking lessons and suggest ways to overcome that difficulty? There are some students refuse to answer the question simply they cannot give the answer The other students say they get trouble with working in a group because they are used to working alone, they feel uncomfortable when someone take a look at them, or sometimes they find some mistakes when he/she raises his/her voice in front of the class which make the whole class laugh at her/him They want to have a fellowship and friendly 29 attitude among students; they hope that other student can help them get in touch in groups in order to help them feel relaxed and interested when doing group working In addition, they would like teachers to take more concern on them because they are often left behind other good students; they cannot follow the pace of group working activities or even get lost because of long and hard group working activities 3.5 Main findings and discussion Based on the analysis of the student questionnaires, we note that: Foreign language teaching is not merely a process of transforming knowledge, but one which creates situations where students interact and express their thought using the target language That is to say, learning a foreign language is to speak and to communicate in that language With speaking, the majority of the students express their needs in terms of speaking skills Concerning the other skills (i.e reading, writing, and listening) students not seem to understand that they are interrelated Thus, learning the speaking skill will reinforce the learning of the other skills Although some students may be motivated to learn English, they feel afraid to speak it for their inability to interact with others; lack of self - confidence, fear of operating foolish when mistakes are made (grammatical or pronunciation mistakes), and fear of teacher negative feedback Because of the many psychological problems (listed above) students have, teachers need to encourage students to ‟ talk inside the classroom to be exclusively in English.” As for teaching speaking, students seem to have different attitudes toward different teaching techniques The majority of the students are interested in discussion and debate The teachers’ role is to adapt the technique with encourages more students’ participation The students showed different preferences for classroom arrangements (i.e group work, pair work individual, or seat work) However, teachers need to include the type of teaching that provides learners with a variety of opportunities for communicative interaction and language use Concerning the implementation of group working activities, students not seem aware of the skills they can adopt for the successful functioning of group working We believed that teachers should raise their student awareness of the importance of these skills Students desire to take control, join much more in group work activities as well as their 30 hope to have technology supports to help them feel comfortable and attractive in group work activities Teachers may not have to take time to time to prepare long handouts with complicated information as well as the way to make students focus on the lessons To instead, the students should have look at the next lessons at home prepare some questions, some ideas, the teachers may have more time to search and prepare interesting things then orient and guide their students in group work activities 3.6 Recommendation As we said above, techno plays important role in improving our living standard in general and education system in specific However, education is an interactive field where students meet teachers, discuss the most effectively with each other directly that any technical support cannot replace In the past, a teacher said something; students listen then answer or write down on the notebooks Nowadays, we have to change the way of teaching and learning, especially for University Students as English majors at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 3.6.1 For students The first students’ problem was improper talking time The leader of all groups often dominated the group so that other members in the group had less chance to present in front of the class To limit this problem, Jacobs and Hall (1994) recommend some suggestions One of their recommendations is assigning roles to members of the group so anyone can be the leader From my own experience, the teacher can point anyone in the group to present their group’s result The second problem was limited vocabulary resource, which led to students’ overusing mother tongue in speaking lessons According to Jacobs and Hall (1994), the teacher should stress that the target language has to be exploited during group work While students are working, the teacher should move around the classroom and remind students of this rule and provide them with language or provide students with necessary phrases and structures before making groups In terms of limited vocabulary resources, Shigao Zheng (2012) believes that teamwork can be a suggestion for this In a team, students can have the chance to share information, stories related to words they have learned Therefore, group members can motivate each other to learn more words In my view, the teacher should provide target language and structures for students so that they can find it easier to speak English 31 3.6.2 For teachers The first teachers’ problem was excessive teaching time Lawrence Ingvarson (2005) suggests that teachers should ask for decreasing the teaching by dividing duties for more teachers Besides, the teachers can discuss with each other to design activities appropriate for students This way will help them have more time to prepare the lesson and organize the group work activities as well as mark their students’ papers In my opinion, the teachers should discuss with each other to make lesson plans The next problem was noises from groups The teachers should remind students to keep answers secret or say that group work quietest will get prizes In addition, the teacher should point one student as the leader to control group This idea is recommended by Lundquist (2003) I strongly support the view that the teacher should move around the groups to remind them to discuss softer and point one student as the leader to the control the group The last point was mixed-level class To deal with this, according to Al-Subaiei (2017), teachers can group higher proficiency students with lower ones so that they can help each other For the teachers at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, that solution was an effective way to deal with mixed-level classes 32 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study The researcher has given some brief introductions to the readers about the definition of group working, the importance of group working, some kinds of group working activities, find out some difficulties in learning speaking via group working activities on class The study investigates some aspect through summarizing the data from questionnaires together with her own observation speaking class at FFL, UTEHY The study shows some main factors of group working, give some difficulties that English major students often have during group-working activities then give some suggestion to solve these difficulties as well as help students overcome difficulties in order that they get much better in speaking classes 4.2 Limitation of the study It was not possible for the researcher to cover a good number of all English major students at FFL for the survey due to lack of time and the effect of Covid 19 pandemic But, the small sample was examined carefully and closely to analyze whether group working activities are used in our context and whether they are useful for the teachers and students in speaking classroom The researcher tried her best to make the study as objective and valid as possible Furthermore, some of the students were not cooperative and they refused to fill up the survey questionnaire as it was not part of their study Besides, most of the students were not familiar with the term “group working activities” So, the researcher had to explain what group working activities are so that the students could fill up the survey questionnaire 4.3 Suggestions for further study In the coming future, when I have chance to the study on this field, I would like to have more time to prepare and the survey questionnaires on more students and teachers to make the data realer and effective as well as we can try some suggestions on the real classes at our Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 33 REFERENCES Adrian Doff (1988, Teaching English: A training Course for teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Arnold, J (1999) Affect in Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Avery, P & Ehrlich, S (1992) Teaching American English Pronunciation Oxford: Oxford University Press Barker, L L., & Gaut, D.R (2002) Communication (8th) Boston: Allyn and Bacon Barnes, D., & Todd, F (1977) Communication and Learning in small Groups London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Bright, J.A., & McGregor, (1970) Teaching English as a Second Language London: Longman Brown, G., & Yule, G (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language New York: Cambridge University Press Brumfit, C.J, & K Johnson (1979) Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University press Byrne, D (1986) Teaching Oral Communication: Longman Handbooks for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 Byrne, D (1976) Teaching Oral English London: Longman 11 Chaudron, C (1988) Second Language Classrooms: Research on teaching and Learning Long, M.H., and Richards, J.C (Eds) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 12 Dickson, L (1981) Have you got Mr Bum the Bake: Problems and Solutions in the use of Games Role play and simulation E L T journal Vol xxx, July, p 382 13 Education Millis, B J & Gottel, P G (1988) The IDEA CENTER #38 14 Ellis, R (2003) Task- based language Learning and Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press 15 Finocchiaro, M & Brumfit, C (1983) The Functional Notional Approach from Theory to Practice New York: Oxford University Press 34 16 Haley, M.H., & Austin, T.Y (2004) Content- Based Second Language Teaching and Learning: An Interactive Approach New York: Allyn and Bacon 17 Harel, Y (1992) Teacher Talk in the Cooperative Learning Classroom Kessler, C(ed) Cooperative Language Learning: A teacher's Resource Book New York: Prentice Hall 18 Harmer, J (2005) How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of Language Teaching Addison Wesly: Longman 19 Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd Ed) 20 Jacobs & Hall (1994) Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 21 Kramsch C (1983) Language and Culture Widdwoson, H.G (ed) Oxford: Oxford University Press 22 Larsen- Freeman, D (2000) Learning Strategy, Training, Cooperative learning and Multiple Intelligence Campell, R N., and Rutherford, W.E (Eds) Techniques and principle in Language Teaching: teaching Techniques in English as a Second language Oxford: Oxford University Press 23 Lindsay, C., & Knight P (2006) Learning and Teaching English: A course for Teachers Oxford: Oxford University Press 24 Little Wood, W (1986) Communicative Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 25 Macaulay, J & Gonzalez, L (1996) Cooperative Learning for Higher 26 Mackay, H., & Tom, A (1999) Teaching Adults Second Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 27 Nunan, D (1988) The learner -Centered Curriculum Cambridge: Cambridge University press 28 Nunan,D.(1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 29 Penny Ur (1981), Discussion that works Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 30 Penny Ur (1996) A course in language teaching” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 31 Revel, J (1979) Teaching Techniques for Communicative English London: 35 Macmillan 32 Richards, J.C Rodgers, T.S (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge: University press 33 Richards, J.C., Lockhart, C (1996) Reflective teaching in second language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University press 34 Rivers, W.M (1968) Teaching Foreign- Language Skills Chicago: The University of Chicago press 35 Scrivener, T (1994) Learning Teaching: A Guidebook for Language Teachers MacMillan: Heinemann 36 Slavin, R.E (1995) Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research and Practice (2 nd Ed) London: Allyn and Bacon 37 Thornbury, S (2005) How to Teach Speaking Harmer, J (Ed) London: Longman 38 Widdowson, H.G (1978) Teaching Language as communication London: Oxford University press 39 Woolfolk, A (2004) Educational Psychology London: Longman 40 Yalden, J (1983) The Communicative Syllabus: Evolution, Design and Implementation Oxford: Pergamon Press 41 Zhang, Y (2010) Cooperative Language Learning and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol 1, No 1, January 2010, PP 81 -83 I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS My name is Truong Quynh Anh and I am a senior of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for the study on “A study on using different methods to improve group working skills in speaking lessons of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education.” I would very much appreciate it if you could spend time providing us with the necessary information It is confirmed that your personal identity will remain strictly confidential Thank you very much in advance! Question How often you work in group in speaking lessons? Often Sometimes Rarely Never Question What you think of learning speaking skills? Very difficult Difficult Easy Very easy Question Which of the following describes your favorite teamwork numbers when you group working? 2-3 members 5-10 members 10-15 members More than 15 members Question What is the student’s role in using group working in speaking lessons? Normal Important Very important Not important Question Do you find it difficult to work with your classmates in groups? Always Sometimes Never Question Which of the following group working activities you enjoy best? Discussing Debating Peer editing Roundtable Question What are the difficulties you have when using group working in speaking lessons? Hesitate to join groupworking activities Do not concentrate on listening to follow group members Distraction in lessons Other options II Question Which activities in group working should be adapted in speaking lessons at Faculty of Foreign Language, UTEHY to improve speaking skills for the 2nd English majors? Using different types of groupworking Spending more time on groupworking Encouraging students to prepare some groupworking activities then lead groupworking section in speaking lessons on class Switching classes by adding some students from other class and vice versa Meeting other teachers to share and discuss about groupworking activities to find suitable ones for each own own class Equiping more technology supports to help students and teachers have much more options on groupworking activities Thank you so much! III APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This questionnaire is designed for the study on using different methods to improve group working skills in speaking lessons of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Your assistance in completing the survey is highly appreciated Your answers play a very important and useful part to the study All the provided information is solely for the aims of studying, not for any other purposes Please tick in the box! Thank you very much for your cooperation! Question 1: How often you work in group in speaking lesson? Often Sometimes Rarely Never Question 2: What you think of learning speaking English? Very difficult Difficult Easy Very easy Question 3: Which of the following describes your favorite teamwork number in group working? 2-3 members 5-10 members 10-15 members More than 15 members Question 4: What is the teacher’s role in using group working in speaking lessons? Normal Important Very important Not important Question 5: Do you find it difficult to work with your students in groups? Always Sometimes Never Question 6: Which of the following activities did you enjoy best in teaching group working? Discussing Debating Peer editing Roundtable Question 7: Which difficulties you have when teaching group working in speaking lesson? Students hesitate to join groupworking activities Students not concentrate on listening to follow group members Students distraction in lessons Other options IV Question 8: Which strategies in group working should you use in speaking lessons at Faculty of Foreign Language, UTEHY to improve speaking skills for the 2nd English majors? Using different types of groupworking Spending more time on groupworking activities Encouraging students to prepare some groupworking activities then lead groupworking section in speaking lessons on class Switching classes by adding some students from other class and vice versa Meeting other teachers to share and discuss about groupworking activities to find suitable ones for each own own class Equiping more technology supports to help students and teachers have much more options on groupworking activities Thank you so much! V APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS Question 1: How often you work in group in speaking lessons, and list some group activities you used? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Question 2: What you think about the importance of groupworking in speaking lessons? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Question 3: Do you have any difficulties when working in group in speaking lessons and suggest ways to overcome that difficulty? ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you so much!