(SKKN 2022) how to organize pair work and group work effectively in teaching english for high school students

SỞ GIÁO DỤC & ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁTRƯỜNG THPT YÊN ĐỊNH 1 SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM HOW TO ORGANIZE PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK EFFECTIVELY IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Người th

SỞ GIÁO DỤC & ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN ĐỊNH 1

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

HOW TO ORGANIZE PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK EFFECTIVELY IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Người thực hiện: Đỗ Thị Thu Chức vụ: Giáo viên

SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực (môn): Tiếng Anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.Reasons for choosing the topic ……… 1

1.2 Aims of the study ……… 1

1.3 Objects of the study ……… 2

1.4 Research methods ……… ……… 2

1.5 New points of the experience initiative……… 2

2 CONTENTS OF THE STUDY 3 2.1 Rationale of the study ……… 3

2.2 Current status of the problem before applying the study… 3 2.3 Solutions and methods for implementation … …… 4

2.3.1 Solutions ……… 4

2.3.2 Methods for implementation ….……… 4

2.4 Effectiveness of the study for educational activities, with myself, the colleagues and the school………

19 3 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 20 3.1 Conclusion ……… ……… 20

3.2 Recommendations ……… 20

REFERENCE BOOKS……… 21

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reasons for choosing the topic:

English has become a really important tool in order to succeedprofessionally in our society; it is the language for business, research, publicrelations and the Internet For this reason, teachers are looking for betterstrategies to teach this subject For language educators and practitioners, how toeffectively motivate students to learn has long been a crucial concern issue.Among all the factors that affect learning motivations, teaching styles andteaching materials might be regarded as the most essential elements to be taken

into consideration for achieving a more successful teaching and learning

As we know, in tradditional classroom, the teacher controls the class withauthority, there is no active role of students during teaching- learning process.Therefore, the introduction of a new English textbook at high school in the lastfew years has created some difficulties for teacher This innovation demands amove in the direction of a more learner- centered approach to teaching Themain objective of teaching English is to have communicative lesson

However, in fact, the teacher- student interaction is very limited in theclassroom Many teachers have troubles adapting their teaching and the newtextbook to their own students’ learning needs These difficulties include the use

of group and pair work

As a teacher of English at high school, I myself always desire to find outand apply the new methods of teaching in order to meet the educational goals Ihave been a teacher of English at high school for 8 years From my ownexperiences, I find that using pair work and group work is one of the teachingstrategies of collaborative language teaching which provides chances forcommunication and interaction among students and between students andteacher Language classroom is the place where teacher and learners cometogether for interaction and can learn in natural settings The effective use ofpair work and group work in language class can provide a value experience tostudents and give them the opportunity to practically experience the ideaspresented and strengthen their learning

I have applied pair work and group work activities in teaching English atYen Dinh 1 high school got satisfactory results I, therefore, in this research,

would like to share my own experience in “ how to organize pair work and

group work effectively in teaching English for high school students”.

1.2 Aims of the study.

To introduce pair work and group work and show the advantages anddisadvantages of working in pairs and groups

To suggest how to organize pair and group work effectively and how to dealwith initial problems that may arise

To show how pair work and group work can be used for various classroomactivities

To help teachers be confident in using pair and group work themselves.

1.3 Objects of the study:

- This study was conducted among the 90 students of 2 classes 11A3,11A12 atYen Dinh 1 high school during the school year 2021 -2022

- Statistical methods, data processing: After applying the theme will be theresult statistics about the level of student progress to evaluate the success of myproject

1.5 New points of the experience initiative.

In this experience initiative, I have developed appropriate practiceactivities that are superior to existing textbook activities to help students easilyunderstand the content of the lesson through specific practice in each lesson

2 CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

2.1 Rationale of the study

Language teaching came into its own as a profession in the last century.Since the 1960s, there has been an increasing attempt in research on teachingand learning and types and quantities of the relative amount of participation bythe teacher and students

Group work and pair work started getting attention of educationists in the70s During the 1980s and 1990s, the development of communicative languageteaching brought an important change in the role of students Working together

is worthwhile as “ pair and group work immediately increase the amount ofstudents’ talking time” ( Harmer, 1991)

Researchers are convinced that the students who take the initiative inlearning learn more things and learn better than those who sit and passively wait

to be taught They also claim that a teacher’s dominance in class makes it dulland it kills the students’ interests

I am myself of the view that students are more motivated to engage infurther communication when they have more opportunities to speak Using pairwork and group work stimulates the learners’ experience of various types ofinteraction and helps to generate a more relaxed and cooperative classroomatmosphere It is during group and pair work that a lot of real learning takesplace since the students can use language really to communicate with oneanother

2.2 Current status of the problem before applying the study

2.2.1 For students:

-Most students are not interested in learning English and they think thatEnglish is a difficult subject, most of them are afraid to learn this subject Thenumber of students with knowledge and skills is very small They also thinkthat pair work and group work lessons are just for fun because their ability topractice language is not noticed as soon as they begin to approach English Theyalso think that, in fact, this course is not an exam, so they don't need to paymuch attention Besides, the types of practice activities of textbooks are not onlyvery difficult but also poor, boring and monotonous These lessons are oftenboring, very few students participate Because of the above reasons, they arevery passive in lessons, uninterested and ineffective

- Besides, the high school that I am teaching is a school located in a rural area,with many economic difficulties and a sparsely populated area The mainincome of the people is based on agriculture, so the investment in children'seducation has not been paid much attention by parents Therefore, students facemany difficulties in learning, even they do not have enough materials forlearning

to noise generated during pair and group work activities and so on.

As a result, despite being an important part of collaborative teaching andlearning, pair and group work generally neglected in teaching English at highschool

2.3 Solutions and methods for implementation

2.3.1 Solutions

a Teacher should know well about what pair work and group work are, theirboth advantages and disadvantages as well as solutions to their problems

b The ways to organize pair work and group work activities effectively so that

we can make use of their benefits and limit their problems In order to organizepair and group work well, teacher will need to do the followings:

1 Select the activity.

2 Presentation.

3 Prepare any physical materials for group work ahead of time.

4 Anticipate the size and the selection of groups.

5 Anticipate how students will be organized within the groups (tasks and

roles)

6 Control the class well.

7 Consider the timing of the group work.

8 Give feedback

c Some demonstrations for pair work and group work activities

d Suggestion for some popular kinds of practice

2.3.2 Methods for implementation

a Teacher should know well about what pair work and group work are, theirboth advantages and disadvantages as well as solutions to their problems

 What are pair work and group work?

- Pair work:

The teacher divides the whole class into pairs Every student works with his orher parner and all the pairs work at the same time The teacher walks around,listens and intervenes little if necessary

- Group work :

Students work in small groups ( four or five) on tasks that entailinteraction: conveying information, for example, or group decision making Allthe groups work at the same time The teacher walks around listening, interveneslittle if at all

 Main advantages, problems and solution to the problems.

For certain types of activity, pairwork and groupwork have a number ofadvantages over working with the whole class together Teachers should thinkwhat the main advantages are, and also what problems might be involved inpairwork, groupwork and the solutions for these

Here are some main advantages and problems:

- More language practice

- More speaking time

- Students are more involved

- Students feel secure, confident

- Students help one another

- Give students the sense of

achievement when reaching a team

goal

- Noise arrangements

- Students make mistakes

- Lose control of the class ………

Now, we will discuss each heading in more detail First, let’s start withthe advantages

- More language practice:

Pairwork and groupwork give students far more chance to speak English.For example, students are given an exercise of making sentences (question &answer), working in pair, each student makes as many sentences as they can Ifthe exercise were done ‘round the class’, students would only say one sentenceeach , and in a large class many students would say nothing at all

- More speaking time:

Learners in a class that is divided into 9 groups of 5 or 22 pairs get sixtimes or fifteen times as many opportunities to talk as in full class organization

- Student are more involved:

Some activities will probably be dominated by a few students and otherswould lose interest if they are conducted with the whole class together Working

in pairs or groups encourages students to be more involved and to concentrate

on the task

- Students feel confident:

Students feel less anxiety when they are working privately than when theyare on show in front of the whole class Pairwork and groupwork can help shystudents who would never say anything in a whole class activity

- Students help each other:

Pair work and group work encourage students to share ideas andknowledge In a reading actictivity, students can help each other to explore themeaning of a text; in a discussion activity, students can give each other newideas

Now talk about the problems, and discuss the ways of recovering them:

p.14, 1996) Students use English or engage in a learning task Teacher shouldstop the activity when most groups or pairs have finished or prepare a “reserve”task to occupy members of groups who finish earlier than expected.

- Students make mistakes:

During a pair or group activity, the teacher can not control all thelanguage used, and should not try to do so When doing cotrolled languagepractice in pairs or groups, the number of mistakes can be reduced by:

+ Giving enough preparation, the activity can be done with the whole classfirst, and pair work used for final stage

+ Checking afterwards The teacher can ask some pairs or groups what theysaid , and then correct mistakes if necessary

- Difficult to control class:

The teacher has less control over what students are doing in pair work andgroup work than in normal class To stop activities getting out control, it isimportant to:

+ Give clear instructions about when to start, what to do and when to stop + Give clearly defined tasks which don’t continue for too long

+ Set up a routine, so that students accept the idea of working in pairs orgroups, and know exactly what to do

b The ways to organize pair work and group work activities effectively

 Steps in the classroom:

Step 1 :Select the activity.

An activity that is best suited for group work may meet the followingcriteria:

+ The activity has multiple tasks that can be shared among group members or

a single task, such as generating ideas, that benefit from the participation of allindividuals within a group

+ The activity involves problem solving and discussion

Examples of activities that may be suited for group work are investigations ofmaterials (newspapers, scientific specimens) and development of ideas orarguments

Step2: Presentation.

It is advisable to give the instructions before giving out materials ofdividing the class into groups; and a preliminary rehearsal or ‘dry run’ of asample of the activity with the full class can help to clarify things If yourstudents have already done similar activities, you will be able to shorten theprocess,giving only brief guidelines;It is mainly the first time of doingsomething with a class that such care needs to be invested in instructing

Try to foresee what language will be needed, and have a preliminaryquick review of appropriate grammar or vocabulary Finally before giving thesign to start tell the class what the arrangements are for stopping: If there is atime limit, or a set signal for stopping, say what it is; if the groups simply stopwhen they have finished, then tell them what they will have to do next It is wise

to have a reserve task planned to occupy members of groups who finish earlierthan expected.

Step3: Preparation of materials.

The teacher will need to personally collect, or organize students to collect,physical specimens for investigation For example, if the teacher anticipatesdoing a lesson on the role of the media, she or he might ask the students to bringinto class examples of newspapers and magazines There should be materialssufficient for each group

Step 4: Size and selection of group.

Group size normally ranges between 3-5 students Group size cansometimes go larger, although groups larger than 8 do not ensure that everyonewill participate

Since groups often report their work back to the whole class, teachers also takeinto account the total number of groups within the class

Group membership can be determined in different ways A randomselection might be done by "counting off" with students (go around the roomsystematically having students count 1, 2, 3, etc., with each numbersrepresenting a group) or selecting groups on the basis of birth date

In a nonrandom selection, groups will be selected based on the teachers'prior knowledge Usually, groups are selected to maximize diversity within thegroup, since diversity enhances learning Such groups often have a balance ofgirls and boys, and students with differing ability levels Teachers can also usetheir best judgment about personality mixes that would enhance the work of thegroup

Sometimes groups are organized only for one activity Other times,teachers use the same small groups for a series of activities, so that students getused to working with one another

If the tables and chairs cannot be moved for group work, then studentscan form groups by turning around in seats to face the children behind

Step 5: Organize students within the group.

A laissez-faire approach to group work would be that the teacher give ageneral assignment to the group like organize a research project on 'qualities

of good leaders' and the students are left to organize themselves

A highly structured approach would be that the teacher assigns a specificrole to each group member Depending upon the task, the roles might include'materials handler', 'scribe', 'reporter to the large group' and so on A semi-structured approach might be that the teacher recommend certain roles, butleaves it to the group to assign roles

A more structured approach, with rotation of tasks within a group, is oftenused with younger children A less structured approach can be used withstudents with experience in group work or for simple tasks that do not requirethat students take on different roles

Step 6: Control the class during students’ working time.

Teacher goes from group to group, pair to pair, monitor, and either contribute orkeep out of the way whichever is likely to be more helpful If you do decide tointervene, your contribution may take the form of :

- Providing general approval and support;

- Helping students who are having difficultly;

- Keeping the students using the target language(in many cases your merepresence will ensure this!)

- Tactfully regulating participation in a discussion where you find somestudents are over dominant and others silent

Step 7:Time the group work.

The teacher should anticipate student questions about timing, the taskresults, sharing with the whole group, and so on After giving clear instructions

to the students, the teacher should be available to answer questions, but notinterfere with the groups' activities

It is common in many classrooms that a small group activity constitutes

20 minutes of a 40 minute-period, with 10 minutes allowed for sharing smallgroup work with the whole class

Step 8:Give feedback

A feedback session usually takes place in the context of full-classinteraction after the end of the group work Feedback on the tasks may takemany forms:

- Giving the right solution, if there is one

- Listening to and evaluating suggestions

- Pooling ideas on the board

- Displaying the meterials the groups/ pairs have produced

The main objective here is to express appreciation of the effort that has beeninvested and its results Feedback on language may be integrated into thisdiscussion of the task, or provide the focus of a separate class session later

Here are suggestions for some popular kinds of practice:

*Pattern practice:

This can be done in pairs when practicing the structures Any controlledoral practice can be done first with the whole class, and then in pairs

* Practising short dialogues:

Acting out short dialogues can very easily be done in pairs, with littlechance of making mistakes It can be done first with pairs of students in front ofthe class and then with all students working in pairs at the same time

* Reading a text and answering questions:

Students can disscuss questions in pairs or groups and then read the text

or they can read the text silently and then ask and answer questions in pairs orgroups This is a good way of involving the whole class in answering questions

* Short-writing exercises: