Using Group & Pair Work to Get Great Results

1. Sharing personal experience 

Why do we use group work or pairwork? Write your ideas here.

Now compare your list with your colleagues. How many new or different ideas did you get? How did you feel when a colleague had the same idea?

Pairwork is great because:

-          You learn new ideas from your colleagues

-          You get reassurance that your ideas are correct!

-          You get to practice and share in a safe environment

-          Good language teaching is about efficient language practice and pairwork allows for lots of practice!

-          Students work at the level of what is known to them both and move towards what is less familiar  

-          It forces the quieter students to participate

-          Pairwork helps to maximize student talking time.

-          different combinations of student - student interaction

-          the teacher is free from being the instructor and can monitor the class noting problems, giving more time to slower learners

-          It’s fun!

What are the problems with pair and group work?

Write your ideas here:

Now compare your list with your colleagues. How many new or different ideas did you get?

Here are some other ideas:  

-          Group work can be dominated by 1 or 2 students

-          teachers can’t see what’s going on

-          Noisy

-          Takes time to set up

-          students don’t want to move around

-          Learners may be confused - what’s the learning aim? no clear end results

-          Isn’t the teacher supposed to be the expert?

-          Cultural perspectives may differ. For example, S-S interaction may be seen as a waste of time.