This study intends to 1) find out to what degree students regard their group discussion experiences as satisfying, 2) examine the factors that affect small group discussion (SGD) and 3) provide information for ESL teachers to improve their SGD in the classroom. Questionnaires were administered to first year students on Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University in June, 2003. The data were processed and analysed using SPSS 10.0. Research findings indicate that: 1) most students like SGD; 2) those most highly ranked causes of SGD failures are: poor preparation, low proficiency, low morale and monopoly; 3) those most highly ranked facilitating factors are: a) respect, self confidence, and patience of students, b) morale boosting, appropriate body language, praise, and good personalities of teachers, c) interesting and relevant topics, appropriate time allocation and variety in discussion content for the activity itself. Finally the optimal group size is five.