Until now, English has been considered very important in every field of each society such as: diplomacy, business, aviation, education and science and technology. Because of its globalization, English has become the crucial medium in communication.
In Vietnam, since 1986, English has become very popular because there have been English-speaking people coming to, visit or work in Viet Nam. They come to Vietnam not only because they want to do business with the Vietnamese but also they want to get to know about the people, the cultures and explore the beauty of Vietnam. Specially, with the open-door policy, many foreigners have been attracted by Vietnam. Thus, English has been the key to Vietnam’s regional and global integration. English is used not only between the Vietnamese and foreigners but also between the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese. All this burns the desire of learning English in Vietnam. The demand for English training is promoted by an increasing influx of foreign investments from both English-speaking countries and non-English-speaking countries which needs English as a means of communication. Vietnamese people need to be able to communicate in English successfully and effectively. The lack of communicative ability in oral and other language skills in using English can put Vietnamese regionally and internationally in an inferior position both in politics and economics.
In FPT University, English is a compulsory subject and certainly, every student knows that it will be important for their future job. They will use English at work. The students here opt for English due to their realization that a high proficiency in English will give them more opportunities for employment, let alone the possibility of going abroad for their further study in the exchange training program of FPT University and some Universities in Germany, Japan etc. Among the four languages skills, most students think that speaking is the most important in the first year of studying in FPT University. During the time of studying in FPT University, they will have to learn English for 3 semesters (each of which in university lasts for 13 weeks) include most English lessons. After the second year, they will learn the subjects almost with the English–speaking teachers and they will have to present their topic of study in English. Furthermore, after graduation the students will have to do business, negotiate with the partners in English to sell their products to them. To

make these successfully, they must have a good ability of English especially communicating orally in it.
For a long time, the language teaching and learning was based on the out of date methods which could not help the students speak fluently and communicatively. For over the past few years, Communicative Language Teaching method has been widely applied. As a result, the students’ speaking skill has been improved remarkably. This marked the beginning of the major change in the language teaching and learning at all levels from school to university.
FPT University is a newly founded university (more than two years old) who also would like to innovate their teaching and learning. With this implied ambition, we expect that there will be many changes in the teaching as well as learning in FPT University. Here, the teaching of speaking skill is always emphasized. All the teachers here have been trying their best to help their students in learning English speaking skill well. However, the result has not met their expectation. Many failed their speaking test. When discussing in group, many students still use Vietnamese while others keep silent etc.
In the speaking class, the 1st –year students have to do many speaking activities. Among them, group work-one of the key features of learner-centered orientation- have received more emphasis -because at the end of each semester, the students from the level of pre-intermediate on have to sit for speaking test which includes two parts: panel discussion and individual response. Much time has been devoted to group work activities because of a number of advantages they bring about. For example, group work can dramatically increase the amount of talking for individual students, encourage border skills of participation, cooperation and negotiation, promote learner autonomy by allowing students to make their own decisions in the group without being told what to do by the teacher, and free the teacher from her usual role of instructor-corrector-controller.