Name:

Class:

Subject: Research Methodology

Topic: An investigation on the effects of group work activities on motivating

the first - year students in speaking lessons

I. Rationale
- Teamwork activities play a very important role in improving students'
learning motivation, especially in speaking lessons.
- Teamwork activities enable students to improve and enhance their
learning motivation. Students feel more excited and comfortable when
participating in group activities while learning speaking skills. Since then,
the results of their speaking skills are effectively improved
- This is a teaching method that needs to be applied in the process of
teaching English, especially speaking skills to improve learning
motivation for students.
II. Aims of the study
- This study aims at clarifying the effects of group work activities on
motivating the first - year students in speaking lessons.
- The solutions to promote the role of group work activities on motivating
the first-year students in speaking lessons are also proposed in this study.
III. Research questions
- What are the effects of group work activities on motivating the first - year
students in speaking lessons?

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- How to promote the role of group work activities on motivating the first-
year students in speaking lessons?
IV. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation on the time and topic framework, this thesis mainly
focuses on clarifying the theoretical background related to group work
activities, speaking skill and the effects of group work activities on
motivating the students in speaking lessons.

V. Methods of the study

During the process of doing the research on the topic "An

investigation on the effects of group work activities on motivating the first
- year students in speaking lessons", the following research methods are
used:
- Method of reading, studying and analyzing documents: This method is
used to analyze documents related to the concept of group work activities
on motivating the first-year students in speaking lessons
- The quantitative method: This thesis uses quantitative method to
investigate the effects of group work activities on motivating the first -
year students in speaking lessons
VI. Tentative design of the study

The study is designed by a survey with a random selection of 100 first-year

students from Hanoi Open University, of which 48 were female and 52 were
male.

VII. Outline of literature review

1. Key concepts

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 The definition of group work activities:

According to Richards (1983), group work is an essential activity because the

kind of interactions produced in group activities has been shown to be
quantitatively as well as qualitatively different from that which goes on in the
teacher- dominated lessons

The definition of speaking skill:

Speaking skill is the art of communications and one of 4 productive skill, that
must mastered in learning foreign language. Good speaking skills is the act of
generating words that can be understood by listeners. According to Nunan
(1991), success is measured in term of the ability to carry out a conversation in
the target language

2. Related studies

There are many studies that have investigated the topic of group work activities
in teaching English, one of the typical studies is “An investigation in to the
impacts of out of class English activities on the English major students’
achievement at Military Science Academy” writen by Nguyen Thu Hanh,
Pham Thi Hoai Phuong (2019). This thesis described an in-depth investigation of
how out-of-class English activities can be seen to positively influence the
English major students’ achievement at Military Science Academy

VIII. References
1. Joan., B. (1997). Making Groups Work: Rethinking Practice. Allen &
Unwin.
2. Phillips, Helen, U. (1957). Essential of Social Group Work Skill.
Association Press, New York.

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