Group Work

Group work in an ESL classroom is an effective way to teach English. There are many advantages to using group work in a classroom and definitely many ways to include it in a lesson. Group work, in my opinion, would be defined as 3 or more students working together on a common activity. For the sake of this blog, I am going to incorporate pair work, 2 students working together on a common activity, in the term group work. Although group and pair work can be different there are many similarities.

One of the advantages of using group work in an ESL classroom is that it encourages the students to take responsibility with what they are learning. The teacher, although present and available, allows students to figure things out for themselves. Someone will take leadership and there will have to be communication between the students.

Another advantage to group work is how it creates interactive language. Communication is not limited to language by any means, however, when group work is required by a teacher, there is little chance that hand gestures will suffice. Interaction, in this way, generates true and real language that has a function for the students.

As mentioned earlier, there are many techniques to incorporate group work into the classroom. Drama and skits are some of my favourite group activities. By using drama and skits students can use their imagination to create scenarios, integrating authentic language into the scenario. Sociolinguistic knowledge must also be considered as they produce and perform.

 Games are another technique of using group work in the classroom. Games cause an interaction, creating authentic language as well as, mostly the game is centered around a particular subject being addressed in class. Other techniques to use in the classroom in order to incorporate group work can be brainstorming, projects, problem-solving, opinion exchanges, information groups, interview, peer review, dialogues and many, many more.

Something to be careful of, before you begin to incorporate group work into your classroom is to make sure your students have group work or classroom language. What I mean by this, is that your students must have or know the language they will need to participate in group work. If students do not know the basics of a spoken language, they are probably not ready to be left alone to figure out how to communicate with one another in a project.

Remember that you are the teacher. Just because your students participate in a group activity does not mean you are on coffee break. Visit each group, listen to what they are saying and if they need direction, pose them questions to cause them to think. Sitting back in your chair is not an option at this point. Stay involved with your students.

To conclude, group work is effective in an ESL classroom. Be aware of your classroom dynamics and the language that your students have accumulated already. When you think they are ready, challenge them to learn from each other, to communicate, and interact. Be available to them but give them a chance to figure it out on their own too. Both you and your students will benefit from it.

Bibliography

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (Fourth ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

For more information look these up:

Implementing Group Work in the Classroom. (2018, February 28). Retrieved from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/alternatives-lecturing/group-work/implementing-group-work-classroom

Verner, S. (2013, November 23). Top 10 Benefits of Group Work for ESL Classrooms. Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/17846-group-work-esl-classroom-top-10-benefits.html

Working in pairs and groups. (2010, September). Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/working-pairs-groups