What is group work?

What is group work?

Group work is when the students work together on an activity in groups;

For example, in fours or as a class separated into two.

Why use group work?

Several groups can work at the same time so, instead of only one or two people practicing the language and the others just listening, everyone is active.

Group work is excellent for speaking and listening. Students can also work in groups for grammar and writing tasks, for reading and taking notes while listening- in fact, for almost all areas of classroom practice.

Organizing group work

Before we do group work we need to:

Give the students a clear objective for the group work activity. For example, ‘to practice agreeing or disagreeing in English’; ‘or to read parts of a text then share information and answer comprehension questions’.

Each group can select a spokesperson and secretary to make notes of the group’s ideas.

While the students work in groups, the teacher can leave the front of the class and move around, listening to the groups, helping if needed.

After the group is completed, the spokesperson from each group speaks to the class and summarizes the group activity. Then we can correct any language errors and praise the students good work. Group work motivates students in a large class because everyone can participate and practice.

Mirany from Madagascar writes:

The positive thing about large classes is that you have more life and more dynamism. I give the students more responsibility when they work in groups but I still feel that I’m in charge. I signal to the class to stop by putting up my hand. One student from each group talks to the class after the activity to give the answers or sum up their discussion so we don’t have a problem with everyone shouting out at the same time and making too much noise. We can’t move the furniture in our classroom, so I just move the students!

Адрес публикации: https://www.prodlenka.org/metodicheskie-razrabotki/198069-what-is-group-work