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f an unaccepted individual's opinion. Malamah (1988: 8) states “Every interaction situation has the potential for cooperation or conflict. And where there is conflict in interaction, communication breaks down”.

From mentioned disadvantages, it is important to organize group work activities in a right way and the teacher's role in carrying out these activities is extremely necessary.

2.3.3. The teachers and students' roles in carrying group work activities.

2.3.3.1. The teachers' roles.

In classroom, teachers are people who “ultimately responsible for the management of the classroom transactions” (Widdowson, 1990), or are in a position of “dominance” the process of exchanging information between students (Wright, 1987). Some researchers have stated different roles of teachers in group work activities at the same time: an organizer, a controller, and a participant.

According to Harmer (1991), being an organizer is one of the most difficult roles of a teacher in group work activities. The organizers have to tell students what activities they are going to do, give them clear instructions and information of the activities.

As controllers, teachers have to control what activities students do, what language they use and make sure that all students take part in their task (Sheils, 1993). Besides, teachers are expected to go round and take notes of difficulties and mistakes for late comment (Brown, 1994b and Harmer, 1991).

When students are doing their tasks, teachers can play a role of a “co- communication” (Littlewood, 1981), or a “competent speaker” and “a good listener” (Sheils, 1993).

In conclusion, there are many demands on teachers when they organize group work activities. They have to realize and understand their roles to make the group activities the most effective.

2.3.3.2. The students' roles.

Working in groups, students have to take part in the given activities, so they also have special roles.

Firstly, students are real doers in the activities. This mean that they need to change their passive attitude into active one. They should take charge of their own learning by actively working with other students in group work to complete their tasks (Nolasco and Arthur, 1988).

Secondly, students are listeners in effective group work. According to Davies and Pearse (2000), students not only pay attention to teachers' given information, but listen to friends as well. When the activities are in progress, it is necessary for them to listen to their friend in groups to exchange information and learn from them.

Lastly, students are also co-operators. When working in groups, students are expected to share the responsibility for their learning, cooperate with each other and their teacher in all stages of the tasks (Sheils, 1993).

2.4. Previous studies on the use of group work activities.

Recentresearchers have made above mentioned assumption clearer. In their studies, group work activities are certainly means of increasing students' practice opportunities in language learning. Tran Thi Ly (2001) and Zhenhui (2001b) share opinion that group work activities help reduce the element of teachers' domination and create more chances for interaction within the class. Nuun (2002) once again confirms the advantages of in