Journal 1

This is my first journal and it is about pair work and group work, and whether they worked in one of the classes I observed in my tarining school.

PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK

 Pair and group work is inevitable in some lessons, and English courses are one of these lessons because teaching a foreign language is not like teaching numbers, algebra, physics and chemistry. It is not as clean-cut as mathematics, and it is not like getting concrete results from numbers. It is more demanding and quite different from the others in that it requires more sociability in the classroom. Learning English is not just memorizing the rules as in the positive sciences, but communicating and cooperating with others in the target language. One way of conveying this aim in the classroom is making students groups and pairs during the activities.

Students need to discuss between themselves in order to learn. There was an excellent example for pair works at my practicum school because the teacher paired her prep students up every day and every hour of the school. She emphasized the point that working in pairs gave students the chance to check their pair’s work, correct their mistakes and evaluate them. Nevertheless, pair work is not as always effective because some students may not be in good relations; therefore, it can be dangerous or useless to make two disagreeing students pair or putting them into the same group. Teachers may not be aware of this kind of situations, or they may ignore it. In such cases, the result is a predictable one: there is no discussion between these students at all; therefore, there is no production in the end.

 Another significant qpoint to think about is whether the students really speak English in the groups or not. Most teachers make groups in order to make their students communicate in English in the group. However, it generally turns out to be that students do not bother to speak English because there is a language they are all competent in. Thus, as long as there is not an impulse for the students to speak English except the teacher’s warning, students do not speak English in the groups.

 Although group work has some shortcomings, its advantages cannot be underestimated. Being in a group gives the students the feeling of belongingness; in addition, it enhances students’ self efficacy and self confidence because in the groups they become more successful than working individually. Moreover, working in groups creates positive peer relationships. However, it is difficult to implement the group work; thus, the groups should be arranged very carefully.

As for my lessons in the practicum school, I also used both group and pair works in my activities because I wanted students to interact and enjoy the lesson. In my opinion, instead of a very silent class, students should have fun together. So integrating fun and joy into the group work is of crucial importance in order to make the students participate the lesson.

All in all, even though monitoring group works is a very demanding process, making use of it will increase the quality of the lesson. As a result, pair work and group work will reach their goal with more time and effort.