Plenty of meticulous research has been conducted to investigate the entire process for implementing group activities in language classrooms. Nevertheless, few detailed empirical investigations have been pursued in the sub-area of what influences the participation of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students in group discussions. Thus, the present study was conducted to examine the elements impacting the group-work participation of first-year EFL students at University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), Vietnam National University (VNU). Ten EFL freshmen and four teachers of English participated in the study over a four-week period by attending semi-structured interviews. The findings highlighted a variety of elements discouraging the learners' participation related to themselves, pedagogy, and culture and also revealed internal elements as the most significant.