Interactive Language Teaching

Sustaining Interaction Through Group Work

Marco D. MedurandaEDL 261

Questions:What are the advantages of group work?What are some problems to overcome in

successful group work?What different kinds of tasks are

appropriate for group work?What are some steps for implementing

group work?What are some rules for successful group

work?

GROUP WORKa generic term covering a multiplicity of

techniques in which two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and self-initiated language.

PAIR WORK VS GROUP WORKPair work – more

appropriate for task that are short, linguistically simple and quite controlled in terms of the structure of the task.

Small group – groups of six or fewer

Large group

TYPES OF GROUP WORK

ADVANTAGES OF GROUP WORK Group work generates interactive language.• Small groups provide

opportunities for student initiation, for face to face give and take, for practice of negotiation of meaning, for extended conversational exchanges and for student adoption of roles.

Group work offers an embracing affective climate• The small group

becomes a community of learners cooperating with each other in pursuit of common goals.

• Increased motivation• Offers security

Group work promotes learner responsibility and autonomy.

Group work is a step toward individualizing instruction.

EXCUSES FOR AVOIDING GROUP WORK (Myths)

1. “The teacher is no longer in control of the class.”

2. “Students will use their native language.”

• importance of practice in the L2

• intrinsic motivation

•try out language without without the feeling that the whole class is watching and criticizing

•build their intuitions about language

3. “Students errors will be reinforced in small groups.”

Errors are necessary manifestation of interlangauge development.

Teachers’ overt attempt to correct errors in the classroom have negligible effect on students’ subsequent performance

Encourage spontaneous peer feedback on errors within small groups

4. “Teacher cannot monitor all group at once.”

- Wrong belief: Teacher should be “in on” everything a student says or does during the class hour.

5. “Some learners prefer to work alone.”

- Help your students see that language learning is not a skill where you can simply bone up rules and words in isolation.

IMPLEMENTING GROUP WORKSELECTING APPROPRIATE GROUP

TECHNIQUES

GAMESany activity that

formalizes a technique into units that can be scored in some way.

Types (Hadfield, 1999)Linguistic games –

focus on accuracyCommunicative

games – focus on successful exchange of information

Why choose games?Arouse and sustain interestContext for meaningful communicationStudent-centeredDevelop skills in working with othersGames can connect to a variety of intelligences

(Gardner, 1999), e.g., Games played with others involve interpersonal intelligenceGames involving drawing connect with visual/spatial

intelligenceGames often have a hands-on element, such as cards,

spinners, or pieces, which connect with bodily/kinesthetic intelligence

When and how to use games?Traditionally, games have been

used in the language class as warm-ups at the beginning of class, fill-ins when there is extra time near the end of class, or as an occasional bit of spice stirred into the curriculum to add variety.

games can be either for practicing specific language items or skills or for more communicative language production

ROLE-PLAY, DRAMA AND SIMULATIONS

Role play can involve students playing roles that they do not play in real life, such as dentist

Simulations can involve students performing roles that they already play in real life or might be likely to play, such as customer at a restaurant.

Dramas are normally scripted performances, whereas in role plays and simulations, students come up with their own words, although preparation is often useful.

PROJECTSA project is anything that has a final product that can be of use

beyond the immediate classroom. For example: videos, booklets, photo albums, yearbooks and various school publications, quilts and other crafts, murals, newsletters and pamphlets, parties, skits or plays for an audience, Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations, and Web pages. (Northrop, 2000)

BRAINSTORMINGinvolves students in a rapid-fire, free-

association listing of concepts or ideas or facts or feelings relevant to some topic or context

VARIATIONS: Rolestorming Brainwriting Reverse brainstorming

INFORMATION GAPAn information gap activity is

an activity where learners are missing the information they need to complete a task and need to talk to each other to find it.

Example Learner A has a biography of a famous person with all the place names missing, whilst Learner B has the same text with all the dates missing. Together they can complete the text by asking each other questions.

JIGSAWJigsaw is a special form of information

gap in which each member of a group is given some specific information and the goal is to pool all information to achieve some objective.

Example: “strip story”The teacher takes a narrative or

conversation and cuts each sentence into little strip, shuffles the strip and give each student a strip. The goal is for students to determine the whole context of the story...

PROBLEM-SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING

Center students’ attention to meaningful cognitive challenges and not so much on grammatical or phonological forms.

Examples Simple e.g. giving directions on a map Moderate e.g. working out an itinerary

from train, bus or plane schedules Complex e.g. Solving crime story, political

or moral dilemmas

DECISION MAKINGOne kind of problem solving where the

ultimate goal is for students to make a decision

ExampleIn a lesson about air pollution, students in a

group decide how to reduce toxic in our air.

OPINION EXCHANGEpaves the way for more automatic,

peripheral processing of language itselfReminder: all opinions in the class are to

be valued, not scorned, to be respected and not ridiculed.

PLANNING GROUP WORK1. Introduce the technique

Brief explanation that include the ultimate purpose

2. Justify the use of small groups for the technique

Tell explicitly Remind them of the language

forms and functions They can now speak up in the

security of small groups

3. Model the technique

4. DIVIDE THE CLASS INTO GROUPSProficiency levelsAge or gender differencesCulture or subcultural groupPersonality typesCognitive styles preferencesInterestsPrior learningTarget language goals

5. CHECK FOR CLARIFICATIONDo not do this by asking, “Does everyone understand?”Ask questions like, “Mark, please restate the purpose of

this activity.”

6. SET THE TASK IN MOTION

MONITORING THE TASKCirculate and get a sense of the groups’

progress and individual language production

DEBRIEFING1. REPORTING ON TASK

OBJECTIVESLeave enough time for this to take

place

2. ESTABILISHING AFFECTIVE SUPPORTencourage some whole class

feedback How smoothly the task proceeded How comfortable people were with a

topic or task Problems they encoutered

Ask students to reflect on the group work process.

Thank you and good evening ^^,