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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ………… o0o………… PHÙNG THỊ THU HẰNG A STUDY ON USING GROUPWORK ACTIVITES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE MEMBERS OF AN ENGLISH CLUB AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ nói cho thành viên Câu lạc Tiếng Anh trường PT Vùng Cao Việt Bắc MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 HANOI – 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ………… o0o………… PHÙNG THỊ THU HẰNG A STUDY ON USING GROUPWORK ACTIVITES TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILL FOR THE MEMBERS OF AN ENGLISH CLUB AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng hoạt động nhóm để nâng cao kỹ nói cho thành viên Câu lạc Tiếng Anh trường PT Vùng Cao Việt Bắc MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA, PhD HANOI – 2014 i DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution Phùng Thị Thu Hằng ii 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 iii 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 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VCVBHS: Vung Cao Viet Bac High School ESL : English as a Second Language v 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 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationales of the study Aims of the study Significance of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Speaking skill 1.1.1 Nature of speaking skill 1.1.2 Concepts of speaking (spoken language) 1.1.3 Characteristics of speaking 1.2.4 The importance of speaking skill in language teaching and learning context 1.2 Group work in a speaking lesson 1.2.1 Definitions of group work 1.2.2 How to organize group work activities effectively 1.2.2.1 Forming students in groups 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 vii 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 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 viii 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 Conclusions 35 Limitations of the study 36 Suggestions for further research 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I Survey questionnaire for students I APPENDIX .IV INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IV 28 essential structures and important vocabularies…After each speaking activity, the teachers gave feedback and useful assessment for groupwork activities of the students In short, the teachers are trying their best to make the group work activities effective and successful When being asked for the success in giving solutions to overcome the difficulties, all of the teachers (100%) said that they were successful and these solutions helped them overcome their difficulties easily This result shows that the teachers gained effective speaking lessons when applying groupwork activities 3.6 The students' suggestions to make groupwork activities in speaking lessons effective Question 14 What are your suggestions to make groupwork Percent activities in speaking lessons more effective? (%) a Provide a promoting lead-in 22 b Provide necessary vocabulary and structures in preparation stage for 100 groupwork activities, and suggest the ideas c Set limit time for groupwork activities 38 d Give clear instructions 74 e Create a competitive and comfortable atmosphere 100 f Go around, observe and give help if necessary 92 g Give feedback, praise and encouragement 100 Others : 46 - Teachers should call any members in a group to present in front of the class, not only the group leader - Teachers should not to interrupt to correct when students are speaking Table The students' suggestions to make groupwork activities in speaking lessons effective The fingers provided in Table show the fact that 100% of the students expected their teachers to provide necessary vocabularies and structures in preparation stage for groupwork activities, to create a competitive and comfortable atmosphere and to give feedback, praise and encouragement Only 22% said that they wanted their teachers to provide a promoting lead-in Almost all of students (92%) thought that their teachers 29 should go around, observe and give help if necessary Giving clear structions was also emphasized by the students (74%) 38% reported that groupwork activities in speaking lessons was better if their teachers set limit time for groupwork activities Many students added more suggestions; for example, their teachers should call any members in a group to present in front of the class not only the group leader and they wished their teachers not to interrupt to correct when students were speaking 3.7 The teachers' suggestions to help students use groupwork activities in speaking lesson effectively When interviewed to give suggestions to help students use groupwork activities more effectively, all of the four teachers said that they should give their students clear instructions, necessary vocabulary and structures before letting them work in groups and groups of three or four students that had different strong points so that they could help and learn from each other The teachers also reported that they had to encourage their students and have proper punishment for lazy students One important thing was that they should go around and help their students when necessary Furthermore, they suggested some solutions in order to improve the students' speaking skill such as: there should be oral tests so that students would pay more attention to learn speaking, and the administrators should invest more facilities such as radios, special learning room for practicing English, projectors and extra board 3.8 Summary This chapter presented the overview of the English club at VCVBHS, the subjects of the study and instruments of data collection The author used different instruments: survey questionnaires and interview with the purpose of achieving more reliable, valid data After that, the author presented the data analysis of the survey questionnaires and the interview in details In addition, the teachers' and students' suggestions to make groupwork activities in speaking lessons effective were taken into consideration This chapter laid a basic foundation for the major findings and suggestions for the use of groupwork activities in speaking skill improvement, which will be discussed in the chapter three 30 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This section will present the answers to the original research questions proposed at the beginning of the thesis 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? The researcher found that all four teachers in the English club at VCVB high school used the newest teaching method - communicative approach and applied in their speaking lessons Groupwork activities, according to them, were very important and feasible to improve speaking skills for the students It seemed that groupwork activities gave many chances for students to access to different communicative activities, helped them get the valuable experience in working with the others, enhanced students to think clearly and systematically in analyzing an issue, and expressed their own ideas in discussion etc From the data analysis, the researcher found that the teachers prepared carefully for groupwork activites in pre-speaking stage They gave clear instructions, provided necessary vocabulary and functional language the students needed Moreover, they grouped students cleverly and let them choose the speaking topics When the students were working in groups in while-speaking stage, the teachers went around, monitored the students’ performance, and assist the students if necessary In post-speaking stage, the teachers also were willing to provide feedback, praise and encourage the students Besides, they gave the students chances to present their opinions in front of the class, and then evaluated the results of groupwork activities When interviewing four teachers controlling directly the English club at VCVBHS, the writer found that most of the teachers liked using groupwork activities such as games, role play, oral presentation and group discussion and integrated speaking with other skills during their teaching process to improve the oral skills for students The teachers also explained that these activities helped them draw the attention, raise participation of the majority of students and create practical communicative environment for their students When working in groups, students often worked with great interest and used groupwork activities in all stages of a speaking lesson (pre-speaking, while-speaking and post-speaking) A majority of the students found these groupwork activities useful to their speaking skills development and wanted to participate in groupwork activities such as oral 31 presentation, games, group discussion, and role play After each groupwork activity, they felt that their speaking skill was better and better 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? The survey result indicates that most of the students in the English club at VCVBHS saw the importance of speaking skill in their life especially in their future job as well as their oral test and so the teachers Speaking skills and groupwork activities were highly appreciated by both teachers and students in the English club at VCVBHS Most of them agreed that speaking skills played an important part in having a good command of foreign language In addition, the groupwork activities took a vital part in motivating and eventually developing students’ English speaking skill Through the survey, some commonly preferred groupwork activities emerged Thanks to them, the decisive factors for the success of a speaking lesson were therefore taken into consideration as the main point to focus on by the author of the study For the groupwork activities, the teachers and the students also claimed how beneficial the groupwork activities were for their teaching and learning English Both of the teachers and students have been trying to make use of the advantages groupwork activities bring about Although the teachers and the students have done many things to make groupwork activities successful and effective, there are still some difficulties the teachers and the students in the English club at VCVBHS still face in using groupwork activities 4.2.1 Students’ difficulties For the students, there were some difficulties which prevented the groupwork activities from going smoothly The first was the students’ passive and lazy learning style with overload work and the students’ shyness The students only learnt what they were asked to learn or even did not homework Sometimes they felt tired with overload work During the group work, some of them kept silent or spoke Vietnamese and be afraid of taking part in a speaking activitiy The reasons might lie in the lack of classroom interaction including teacher-student and student-student interaction, which resulted in the 32 feeling of embarrassment and making mistakes of students when they wanted to express something in English The second difficulty was that the students in the English club came from different grades in school so they did not have the same level; some of them were at a higher level and some of them were at the lower level Therefore, when they were given the difficult task, the weak students did not or say anything There was a dependence of the weak on the better The students with better English proficiency level felt really reluctant to work with the worse ones This might make the group work activities slow and ineffective The third one was that the students’ vocabulary and structures were poor, they lacked knowledge of science, society and life which related to the speaking topics As a result, the students couldnot understand clearly the content of the topics and couldnot express or present their own ideas and thought fluently 4.2.2 Teachers’ difficulties The first thing was that the number of the students were over-crowded During the process of speaking lesson, the teachers had to observe all the class, so they did not have many chances to contact with each student and help those who learned badly and could not control what they were doing Therefore, students could make mistakes or chat in Vietnamese Besides, some students were lazy and irresponsible whereas others were overwhelmed and dominate, so it was difficult for students to cooperate in completing groupwork activities and the effectiveness of the groupwork activities was not high The second was the students’ difficult level The English club consisted of the students coming from different grades in school such as grade 10, 11 and 12, so the teachers were difficult to group students in a suitable way Besides, they had to create suitable groupwork activities for every students with different levels and provide them more English vocabulary, structure and even knowledge of science, society and life At last, the teachers shared that the groupwork activities seemed to be more useful for good students than weak students It is on the ground that when such an organization of groups work became available, the talkative and good-at-speaking students tended to dominate the speaking activities meanwhile the weak students often depended too much on those who learned better and even became passive during the lesson 33 4.3 Some recommendations to make groupwork activities effective and successful in speaking lessons and to help students to improve speaking skill The above difficulties show that groupwork activities in the English club need some changes to attract more students taking part in the English club and to make these groupwork activities more effective and successful in improve students’ speaking skill Here are some recommendations to make groupwork activities effective and successful for students in the English club at VCVBHS The first thing is providing necessary English vocabulary and structure and important knowledge of science, society and life Besides, the teachers should provide materials or suggesting reference sources related to the contents of the topics given for students When the the teachers provide the students materials or suggesting reference sources related to the contents of the topics, the students will have enough knowledge about vobularies and structures as well as culture to complete a speaking topic with their own confidence Therefore, the students have better speaking skill, not make mistakes and speak English more fluently and exactly The second thing is that the teachers should group good students with weak students so that good students can help and assist weak students in every activities The third is the teachers’ observation and controlling The observation and controlling the whole club will help the teachers to learn the better way to deal with groupwork activities It is necessary for the teachers to circulate among groups, watch the performance of students, remind them not to lapse into their native language, not to make too much noise and offer them suggestions as well The next thing, teachers should ensure that individual student performance is assessed, is given feedback and encouraged, and that the groups know how their members are doing After speaking activity, the teachers’ assessment, encouragement and praise is the best way to stimulate the students try and have good results in their study At last, the teachers should build up cooperative atmosphere in the classroom and encourage students' self-learning Building up cooperative atmosphere makes students feel relaxed and free to express their ideas without being afraid of looking foolish from the peers Moreover, it makes chance for lazy and weak students to participate in activities and to gain valuable experience in developing cooperative skills and to enhance the participation of all students It is not deniable that students' self-learning play an important 34 role in their speaking skills development In a speaking activity, students have to a lot not only at home but also in the class In order to improve speaking skill, they have to practice reading a lot to get valuable information and practice speaking for appropriate pronunciation and automatically learn from their mistakes as well as from the peers in the absence of the teachers 4.4 Summary This chapter has come up with several major findings such as how groupwork activities used in speaking lesson, the difficulties the teachers and the students faced in using groupwork activities in speaking lessons In this chapter, the researcher has made an attempt to give some recommendations with the aims to help the teachers use groupwork activities in speaking lessons more effectively It is hoped that these recommendations will be useful 35 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusions The instruments for data collection of this study have shown the necessary findings that have been analyzed and discussed for the following final conclusions This study was conducted with 50 students and teachers of English in the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School With the use of instruments such as survey questionnaires for students and the interview for teachers, the researcher has found that the use of groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for the students in the English club at VCVBHS was feasible Most of the teachers and the students surveyed held positive opinions towards groupwork activities They were aware of the importance of the groupwork activities towards speaking skills, but the fact revealed that they had several difficulties when dealing with this technique In respect of teachers' difficulties, students’ different level was an important factor affecting their application In respect of students' difficulties, there were varieties of factors affecting the students' English performance in the classroom, but lack of confidence, lack of English vocablulary and structure are the key challenges for students Although both teachers and students understood the importance of these difficulties, overcoming them were not easy This requires a long time and a great effort from both teachers and students The solutions highlighted by both teachers and students were very useful for using groupwork activities in speaking skill since they derived from teachers' practical teaching experience Of all solutions mentioned before, providing students with vocabulary, structure, essential knowledge, materials or suggesting reference sources related to the contents of the topics, grouping the students in groupwork activities suitably, giving compliments and encouragement for students, building cooperative atmosphere in the class as well as in each student and encouraging students' self learning were by far the best solutions Of the four skills in English teaching-learning process, speaking skill is considered rather difficult because it requires knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical structure or culture It is a complex process that allows students to explore thoughts and ideas, and make them visible and concrete The thesis has been completed to enable teachers to avoid difficulties that learners may have in speaking lesson as well as improve their speaking skill The use of groupwork 36 activities is a new effective way to improve speaking skill of high school students It helps learners have chance to exchange information, to share knowledge, ideas and to help each other in a natural and creative way The result or the aim of the study is that the use of groupwork activities brings benefits to the teachers and students in teaching and learning English speaking skill This is also the researcher’s wish to have a suitable and interesting method in teaching speaking skill and helps students in the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school improve their English speaking skill through using groupwork activities For the students, the benefits of using groupwork activities in speaking lessons are to help them promote their independence, cooperation and motivation, to increase their English speaking time and knowledge of vocabulary, structure and daily life, to work with great interest, to have more chances of expressing themselves, and improve speaking skill as well as communicative competence For the teachers, the benefits of using groupwork activities in speaking lessons are to free them from their hard-working, to have more time to assist and pay attention to their students, to create more kinds of groupwork activities attractively, and to have many successful and effective lectures It is much hoped that the study will be useful for not only English teachers of the English club at VCVBHS but also of any language teachers who share the problem and interests in using groupwork activities in teaching and learning speaking skills and in the ongoing process of renovation for teaching English at the school Limitations of the study Although the study has certain strengths such as collection methods, namely observation, survey questionnaires for students and teachers, due to limited time, lack of sources, the researcher’s ability, it is obvious that the study has got a number of drawbacks First of all, the number of informants involved in the survey is still limited, so the findings may, to some extents, not be generalized to all respondents Second, the researcher had a certain constraint of academic language proficiency and experience in carrying out the study Finally, the author's practical experience in teaching to the students from different grades and levels and the knowledge of the subject matter are limited Therefore, this study can be offered as a basis for further research 37 Suggestions for further research Due to the small scope and short period of time, this research only focused on only three problems of using groupwork activities to improve students' speaking skill The coming research will focus on one of the two problems: (1) how to help all the students at VCVBHS groupwork activities effectively, or (2) Strategies for involving the students into groupwork activities Furthermore, the researchers can focus on not only using group work but also pair work or more communicative language teaching to teach other English skills such as listening, reading, and writing 38 REFERENCES Byrne, D 1986 Teaching Oral English: Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers Cohen, E (1986) Designing Group; Strategies for the Cooperative Classroom Teachers College Press Cross, D (1992), A practical handbook of language teaching Great Britain: Prentice Hall International David, B G (1993) Tools for teaching Jossey – Bass Publishers Doff, A.1988 Teach English; A training course for Teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer J (1991), The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman Hurd, S (2000) Using Student Team in the Classroom; A Faculty Guide Anker Boston Publishing Jaques, F (1984) Learning in Groups Gulf Publishing Huston Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R T and Smith, K.A (1991) Cooperative learning: Increasing College Faculty Instructional Productivity ASHE - FRIC Higher Education Report No Washington, D C.: School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University 10 MacCarthy, M (1993) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers Cambridge University Press 11 Moser C.A and G.Kalton (1971) Survey Methods in Social Investigation Heinemann Educational Books Limited, London 12 Nunan, D (1989), Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classrooms, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press 13 Nunan, D., & Lamb, C (1996) The self - directed teacher: Managing the learning process Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 14 Richards, JC & Lockhart, C (1994) Reflective teaching in Second Language Classroom 15 Ruben, B.D (1998) Communication and Human Behavior New York Mark Milan 16 Ur, P (1996) Discussion that Work, Cambridge University Press 38 I APPENDICES APPENDIX Survey questionnaire for students This questionnaire is conducted with a view to finding out techniques to improve Speaking skill for the students of the English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School I would highly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete this survey Thank you for your cooperation! Please complete your personal profile Name: Class: Please circle or tick for each response that best corresponds to your view Why you learn speaking skill? You can tick more than one answer: a English speaking is compulsory at your college b You just want to pass the oral exam c Speaking is necessary for your future job d You are interested in the speaking skill e Others How much you feel interested in speaking in class? a Very interested b Rather interested c Little interested d Not at all How is speaking skill important to you? a Very important b Important c Little important d Not important at all How often does your English teacher use groupwork activities in your speaking lessons? a Always b Often c Sometimes d Never When taking part in groupwork activities, what make you like it most? II a It increases the students’ speaking time b It promotes the students’ independence, cooperation and motivation c Shy and passive students have more opportunities of expressing themselves d Students solve tasks better and faster e Students can learn from each other and help each other when other students get stuck in expressing f Students learn more about how to share the responsibilities g It frees the teachers from their hard-working and can relax h Others ( please specify) …………………………………… In which stages of speaking activity students like to use groupwork activities? a Pre-speaking b While-speaking c Post-speaking In pre-speaking stage, how your English teachers prepare for groupwork activities? a Let the students choose the speaking topics b Give clear instructions c Provide the vocabulary and functional language the students need d Group students cleverly e Others In while-speaking stage, what your teachers often when the students take part in groupwork activities? a Go around and monitor students’ activities b Help students if necessary c Remain in the teachers’ seat and observe d Interrupt and show students’ mistakes when they are working in groups e Do nothing What the teachers in post-speaking stage? a Evaluate and comment the results of groupwork activities b Ask each group to present their results in front of the class c Correct students’ mistakes d Provide feedback, praise and encourage students 10 What kind of groupwork activities you want to participate in your club? Put a tick next to the activities III a Discussion b Interviews c Role play d Games e Oral presentation f Others 11 How you work when practising in groups? a work with great interest b remain timid and silent all the time c chat with other group members about another topics d speak Vietnamese during discussion 12 Do you have any difficulties when working in groups? a Yes, often b Yes, sometimes c Yes, but rarely d No, never 13 What are the factors that cause the difficulties? a Teachers’ low proficiency and experience in English and methodology b The students’ different level c The students’ passive and lazy learning style with overload work d Speaking topics are not interesting e Others (please specify): ………………………………… 14 What are your suggestions to make groupwork activities in speaking activitiess more effective? a Provide a promoting lead-in b Provide necessary vocabulary and structures in preparation stage for groupwork activities, and suggest the ideas c Set limit time for groupwork activities d Give clear instructions e Create a competitive and comfortable atmosphere f Go around, observe and give help if necessary g Give feedback, praise and encouragement h Others : …………………………………… Thank you very much for your cooperation IV APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS How long have you been teaching English? How you think of teaching speaking skill to students? How much you like teaching speaking skill? How often you operate groupwork activities in speaking lessons? In your opinion, what are the benefits of having students to use groupwork activities in speaking lessons? In which stages of speaking lesson you often use groupwork activities? In pre-speaking stage, how you prepare for groupwork activities? What you often in while-speaking stage and post-speaking stage? 10 What activities you often ask your students to work in groups in speaking activities? 11 How your students work when practising in groups? 12 What are your difficulties when you conduct groupwork activities? 13 What solutions did you have to overcome your difficulties? 14 Please give some suggestions to help your students use groupwork activities more effectively and to improve their speaking skill at school ... ? ?A study on using groupwork activities to improve speaking skill for the members of an English club at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school” Aims of the study This study is aimed at investigating the. .. 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. .. preparation stage for groupwork activities, to create a competitive and comfortable atmosphere and to give feedback, praise and encouragement Only 22% said that they wanted their teachers to provide