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Pair Work
Pair Work VS. Group Work
Pair work is learners working together in pairs. One of the main motivations to encourage pair work in the English language classroom is to increase the opportunities for learners to use English in the class.
Example
The
learners are answering comprehension questions in pairs after reading a
text. This allows them to compare answers, and clarify problems
together using English.
In the classroom
Teachers
can evaluate the impact and effectiveness of pair work on their
learners by using action research tools such as asking the learners how
they feel about working like this or by actually participating in an
activity in a pair and evaluating this experience afterwards.
Teacher can enable his learners to wotk individually, then jumps to enabling every 2 leareners to work in pairs. Other paIrs work and practise till they form 5 groups of 5 learners each to create work groups, then the teacher can do the opposite to change from working in groups to working in pairs then individual work.
1-Individual Work:
In individual type of student work, the benefits are that students work at their own pace, they are confident about what they know and what they need to send more time on, they can use their preferred learning styles and strategies. The disadvantage is that students don't get the benefit of learning from peers as well as working with their peers. Individual type of student work is suitable when teacher wants students to do their final task or assignment.
2-Pair Work:
In paired type of student work, the advantages are that students have
the chance to work with and learn from their peers; struggling students
can learn from more capable peers; it is especially useful for students
who prefer interpersonal learning settings. There are challenges
involved in paired work. If students are not matched up well (i.e. low
students together, high students together, a higher student with a low
student but they don't work well together, etc.) pair work won't be
useful; the ability of the students to work in this way needs to be
taken into consideration. Paired work is suitable in inductive learning
activities in which instead of explaining a given concept and following
this explanation with examples, the teacher presents students with many
examples showing how the concept is used. The intent is for students to
notice by way of the examples, how the concept works. As a conclusion to
the activity, the teacher can ask the students to explain the rule as a
final check that they understand the concept.
Kinds of Pairwork:
1-Open Teacher / student pair work.
2-Open Student / student pair work.
3-Closed pair work.
Advantages of using pair work
·It Gives them a sense of achievement when reaching a team goal
3-Group Work
Group type of student work also have benefits and challenges. It
involve benefits such as it provides more opportunity for practice, an
increased variety of activities is possible and an increased student
creativity. The challenges may be that as with pair work, the groups
must be carefully selected to ensure students can work productively; not
all students are able to work to their full potential in this
situation; assessment of student progress can be challenging. By dividing the class into groups students
get more opportunities to talk than in full class organization and each
student can say something. The teachers working
with large classes should divide them into five groups which is the most
effective organization for practising speaking. When
learners work in pairs or groups, it is impossible for the teacher to
listen and correct all the mistakes they make and this is not the
purpose of the activity. However, he/she can reduce the number of
mistakes before the students start working by demonstrating the activity
to the class first and by asking pairs or groups to perform in front of
the class afterwards and discussing what they said and pointing out the
most common mistakes.
Kinds of Group Work
1-Open Teacher / Group work.
2-Open Work Group/ Work Group.
3-Closed Group work.Many tasks benefit from a mixture of pair and group formats.
Here are two examples:
1-Groups into pairs
It is often a good idea to have students discuss a task and/or the language necessary for a task in groups before they move on to do the task in pairs. For example, with a role-play involving two people: to exemplify, teenage daughter/father having a row about coming home late. The daughters’ get together in groups of four to talk about what they might say in this specific situation (the necessary general language having been already presented and practised in a controlled way), and the ‘fathers’ do the same. The learners are then paired as father and daughter to do the role play. In this way the students feel more confident and already have a repertoire of possible things to say. This is a particularly useful technique in larger classes with a wide range of ability.
2-Pairs into groups
This is a very generative way of working, particularly in discussions, and in its extended form is know as ‘pyramiding’. The students are paired to discuss a problem and its solutions. The pairs are then paired into groups of four to come to a group solution. The fours are then paired into groups of eight to perform the same task. This can end up as two halves of the class discussing their decisions. The strength of the activity comes from constantl defending and having to compromise upon one’s earlier decisions.
Other advantages of pair work and small group work
- Gives learners more speaking time
- Changes the pace of the lesson
- Takes the spotlight off you and puts it onto the children
- Allows them to mix with everyone in the group
- Gives them a sense of achievement when reaching a team goal
- Teaches them how to lead and be led by someone other than the teacher.
- Allows you to monitor, move around the class and really listen to the language they are producing.
Pitfalls and how to avoid them
- You could lose control of the class. Set up a signal before you start, like a visual time out with your hands, so that they know when to stop. Don’t shout for them to stop as they will just shout louder!
- You are not able to listen to everyone at once and hear what they are saying – set up groups of three where A and B talk while C monitors. Then swap roles. They are producing language; you just want to make sure the language they are producing is English. Have a fun system of every mother tongue word you hear the monitor must stand up and then stay standing. The activity stops if all monitors are standing. This will make them aware of using English as much a possible and using their first language as little as possible.
- The classroom will get very noisy. This is OK, as long as they aren’t shouting. Move them into different places in the room so that they can hear themselves speak.
How to set up pair and group work
- Be sure to explain the procedure before splitting the class up.
- Always demonstrate either yourself of with the help of a volunteer exactly what they have to do.
- Ask them to tell you what they have to do before they do it (in their mother tongue if need be) to check their understanding.
- Have fill in activities ready for the quick finishers – but be sure that they have completed the task correctly first and haven’t just finished early because they misunderstood what they had to do.
- Don’t forget to have feedback time after pair work so that the children don’t feel that they have been wasting time. It’s important to share their work as a whole group although this doesn’t have to be systematic.
- Set a clear time limit.
- Control who works with who so children aren’t always being dominated or dominating others.
Activities which lend themselves to pair work
- Roll the ball
This can be used to practise any language that requires a question/answer pattern. They can roll the ball to each other and have to say the appropriate sentence as they roll the ball. E.g. 'Hello.' 'Hello.' 'What’s your name?' etc. Remember the sentences they practise should be fairly short.
- Information gap
Give each pair a picture. The pictures should be nearly the same with two or three elements missing from each picture. Without showing each other the pictures they should describe the missing objects. They will practise colour, prepositions of place, and adjectives such as big, small, etc. Then they can compare their pictures.
- Telephone conversations
Sitting back to back they can practise telephone language or just simple exchanges that don’t have to be connected to the telephone itself. Sitting back to back should arouse their interest and help train them with listening skills. It’s a challenge, but a fun one! - .....................................................................................................
View Resources:
1-Pair counting to improve grammar and spoken fluency.
2-Teaching Toolbox, Reconciling theory, practice and language.
3-Teaching Listening skills to young learners "listen and do songs."
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View Other Resources:
1-Online Corpus-based Learner Dictionary.
2-CBI Teachers. Content-based Instruction.
3-Film Circles:Scaffolding Speaking For EFL Students.
4-Writing for the Reader: A problem- solution approach.
5-Integrating language skills through dictogloss procedure.
6-Multilingualism as a resource in the language classroom7-Rediscovering Curiosity, Imagination, and Humor in Learning.
