Student’s name: Le Thi Tuyet Phuong

Supervisor’s name: Tran Kieu My An

Course: 2014-2018

Abstract

The study aims to find out factors affecting students’ participation, students’ opinions and reactions towards group work activities and the extent to which the use of group work helps to motivate students’ participation in speaking lessons. In this research, questionnaire and class observation were used to gather data. Participants were 105 first year English-majored students at IUH. The researcher found that there were lots of factors affecting students’ participation, e.g. lack of language skills, student traits, teaching methods, teacher’s personality, and classroom environment. Students reported positive attitudes towards the use of group work and considered group work to be one of the best methods to learn speaking. More importantly, the application of group work activities had positive effects on students’ participation. Students spoke without the fear of making mistakes and they showed their willingness to join in different activities. The study suggests that teachers should apply more group work activities to encourage students’ participation in the lesson and help improve their speaking performance accordingly.