3403 THE PROS AND CONS OF GROUP WORK IN ELT FOR ADULT LEARNERS Trần Đỗ Khánh Hà, Nguyễn Ngọc Thủy Tiên Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công Nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh (HUTECH) GVHD ThS Hồ Hải Tiến ABSTRACT G.
THE PROS AND CONS OF GROUP WORK IN ELT FOR ADULT LEARNERS Trần Đỗ Khánh Hà, Nguyễn Ngọc Thủy Tiên* Khoa Tiếng Anh, Trường Đại học Công Nghệ TP Hồ Chí Minh (HUTECH) GVHD: ThS Hồ Hải Tiến ABSTRACT Group learning has become common in tertiary education in general and English language teaching and learning (ELT) classes in particular Despite its widespread application, there are doubts over its effectiveness and benefits, especially among students who have had unpleasant experiences with group work activities This paper aims at exploring the use of group work in university and college classrooms, especially ELT classes, and the extent to which it benefits or inconveniences students’ learning experience By having more insights into this method of teaching and learning in ELT, future work can be done to enhance its effectiveness and alleviate the downsides Keyword: group work, group learning, collaborative learning, ELT, pros and cons Introduction Nowadays, English is the most widely used language with about billion speakers worldwide and it is also the third most popular language in terms of the number of native speakers (Taylor, 2022) According to this author, the vast majority of the top 20 universities around the world are English-speaking ones in 2020, which illustrates how much it is used in the academic world This also means English can be the key to entering the best educational institutions especially in developed countries, and it is required that students reach a certain level of English proficiency in order to be qualified for studying in many universities and colleges in many parts of the world In teaching and learning at tertiary level in general and English in particular, group work has become an important part of the teaching methods and programs However, it is not always welcomed and perceived as positive by teachers, students and researchers Group work can help learners develop their personal and interpersonal skills which is necessary for their employability as well as encouraging deep learning through the debates on the subject matter amongst group members (Thorley & Gregory, 2012) Unfortunately, not all students enjoy the experience of working in a group (Colbeck et al., 2000) The reason can be they usually have to spend time outside their school time on group meetings, making them busier and more stressed Group work can also be seen in almost all classrooms in universities and colleges in Vietnam although some students are not really interested in way of learning Therefore, this paper hopes to explore the role 3403 of group work in teaching in general, and English teaching in particular In addition, the existing disagreements on the benefits and attitudes towards group work in ELT will also be clarified The popularization of group work activities The benefits and application of group work have drawn a great deal of attention among teachers and researchers Bennett (2015) claimed that group learning is the modern realization of theorists like Vygotsky or Piaget who believed in the need of social interaction for development in learning In fact, there has been a widely accept belief that collaborative learning promotes the exchange of ideas in groups, enhances students’ motivation, facilitates critical thinking and allows deeper understanding of the subject Learning in a group is also believed to help students reinforce the knowledge learned better compared to individual learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1986) At the beginning of this millennium, many researchers became proponents of working in groups, citing a great number of benefits as their reasons (Bennett, 2015) Due to such benefits, cooperative learning has become a dominant part of classrooms in universities and colleges The application of group work can be seen in many types of class activities in higher education such as discussion of case study, presentations, projects or debates In ELT at university level, group learning is also very commonly seen in role play, speaking practice or language games Applications and challenges in collaborative learning 3.1 The advantages of group learning A study conducted by Hassanien (2006) investigated the pros and cons of group learning in higher education through various activities such as case study, presentation, lesson preparation and debate, which, according to him, are becoming more popular at university level as a part of the teaching, learning and evaluating methods He claimed that group learning can be beneficial in terms of learners’ management skills, social behaviors and interactions The author also summarized different merits of group work activities in the classroom from different researchers, including promoting critical thinking, developing generic skills, developing social skills, facilitating the acquisition of more in-depth knowledge and enhancing cooperation, motivation as well as a sense of responsibility In ELT, the advantages of group learning can be seen in similar ways with some more specific and unique aspects Karim (2015) showed that group learning is a major part of various activities in an English as a foreign language (EFL) class such as game, role play, debate and so on He argued that this way of learning can first, encourage the production of interactive language by reducing teacher talk time while giving time for students’ exchanges of information; second, bring students a greater sense of security and confidence as they can be readier to discuss in a group rather than in front of a big class; third, allow more responsibility and autonomy as a result of the fact that they no longer can hide themselves in a small group, and instead, have to be more self-disciplined and active; finally, facilitate individualization in instruction when different groups with different abilities can pursue different goals 3404 Another study by Fanshao (2009) confirmed many of these claims According to this researcher, working in groups has a number of advantages such as it gives students more opportunities for speaking in a large class, it allows more appropriate tasks to match different groups’ current proficiency and it creates a relaxing context for communication 3.2 The disadvantages of group learning However, according to Bennett (2015), there are several downsides of group work that are often overlooked First, students may nothing when they are supposed to work together or they pretend to things the teacher expects them to Second, one or some students may have to shoulder more responsibility in a group, leading to their dissatisfaction Third, students may end up having arguments, and hence, lose their interest in working together Last but not least, because some students are better and some have to more work while many teachers give one score for the whole group, many may find this method of learning unfair The drawbacks of group learning in ELT are actually not much different from those of other disciplines Brown (2001) indicated some disadvantages of group work activities in teaching English, including the difficulties in class management, in preventing students from using their first language (L1), in avoiding students repeating their errors and in forcing some students to change their learning style The use of L1 in group work, perhaps, is the biggest challenge to deal with in an ELT class Bassano (2003) discussed this issue in her research and suggested possible solutions to handle it by identifying the reasons for students’ using their mother tongue during group work time and then making sure that each cause is dealt with effectively For example, students often use their L1 because the task requires a higher level of English, so that teachers should prepare their learners better in terms of vocabularies and explain most complicated parts of the task before they work with their teammates Interestingly, although there are concerns over unfair assessment in collaborative learning, it is not always the case that students perceive group work evaluation as negative Sometimes students are expected to provide assessment for their teammates’ performance in a class A study carried out by Azarnoosh (2013) in ELT, revealed that there was no friendship bias in students’ peer assessment and that they find peer assessment interesting and motivating compared to the only traditional type of assessment from teachers Conclusion There are both benefits and drawbacks of using group work in the classroom at tertiary level, including ELT classes In general, the advantages brought about by this learning method outweigh the disadvantages In ELT classes, group learning shares most characteristics with that in other disciplines with some unique aspect of language classes Even though there are drawbacks in teaching and learning using group work, by having them determined as in this paper, it is expected that teachers and researchers can find ways to tackle them while still allowing students to benefit from working collaboratively in groups References 3405 Azarnoosh, M (2013) Peer assessment in an EFL context: attitudes and friendship bias Language Testing in Asia, https://doi.org/10.1186/2229-0443-3-11 Bassano, S (2003) Helping ESL students remember to speak English during group work TESOL Journal, 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1949-3533.2003.tb00117.x Bennett, T (2015) Group work for the good: unpacking the research behind one popular classroom strategy The American Educator, 39, 32 Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (2nd ed.) Longman Colbeck, C., Campbell, S., & Bjorklund, S (2000) Grouping in the dark: what college students learn from group projects The Journal of Higher Education, 71(1) https://doi.org/10.2307/2649282 Fanshao, M (2009) Encourage learners in the large class to speak English in group work English Language Teaching, https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n3p219 Hassanien, A (2006) Student experience of group work and group assessment in higher education Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 6(1), 17–39 https://doi.org/10.1300/J172v06n01\_02 Johnson, R., & Johnson, D (1986) Action research: cooperative learning in the science classroom Science and Children, 24 Karim, U (2015) Implementation of group work in the classroom LINGUA: Journal of Language, Literature and Teaching, 12, 97 https://doi.org/10.30957/lingua.v12i1.74 10 Taylor, C (2022) The importance of English: the world language of 2020 and beyond? Preply https://preply.com/en/blog/the-importance-of-english-in-today-s-world/ 11 Thorley, L., & Gregory, R (2012) Introduction In Using Group-based Learning in Higher Education Routledge 3406 .. .of group work in teaching in general, and English teaching in particular In addition, the existing disagreements on the benefits and attitudes towards group work in ELT will also... teaching English, including the difficulties in class management, in preventing students from using their first language (L1), in avoiding students repeating their errors and in forcing some students... unfair The drawbacks of group learning in ELT are actually not much different from those of other disciplines Brown (2001) indicated some disadvantages of group work activities in teaching English,