One of the main ways in which the teacher can get the students to practice and develop speaking skill is through the use of group work. It is so much a part our everyday teaching routine that it has been considered “one of the major changes to the dynamics of classroom interaction wrought by student-centered teaching.”
(Nunan, 1992:142)
The definition of group work according to Doff (1998: 137) is that “the teacher divides the class into small groups to work together (usually four or five students in each group) and all the groups work at the same time.”
Clearly, group work is a co-operative activity, during which students share aims and responsibilities, moreover; they have chances for greater independence as they take some of their own learning decisions, without the teacher controlling every move, and they can work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing. They learn to negotiate, to listen to different opinions and points of view. They participate more confident and in most cases, they feel free to experiment and use the language.
1.2.2 Advantages and disadvantages of group work
Using group work in teaching and learning languages has some advantages as follows:
(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research
To promote interaction among students themselves, teachers of large classes agree that a good first step is to create smaller groups. Some students are reluctant to participate in a class of 50 will be ready to interact if the group size reduces to six or eight. In spite of the fact that teacher has to invest much time and energy in preparing teaching materials, this technique is likely to bring a positive effect on teaching and learning process. The strong evidence is that, if teacher‟s talk in traditional language classes is dominant and each student might get a few second of class period to talk, then in group work students have greater opportunities to talk, to practice in negotiation of meaning, to extend conversational exchanges, in general, to develop communicative competence which is the goal of CLT. That is the reason why group work is selected among other techniques for increasing students‟ participation in communicative activities in large classes.
Group work has some disadvantages. Below are their common problems:
Brown (1994:106) foresawsome problems when group work is conducted, such as: the teacher is no longer in control of the class; students will use their mother tongue; students‟ errors will be reinforced in small group; teachers cannot monitor all groups at once; and some learners may prefer to work alone. However, according to Brown, group work can be conducted successfully if an appropriate task is selected. Typical group work tasks include: games, role-play and simulation, drama, project, interview brainstorming, information gap, jig saw, problems solving, decision making, and opinion exchange. These activities will be more effective if teachers follow some guidelines on organizing group works, such as plan for each stage of group work. When teacher is writing his syllabus for the course, he decides which topics, themes, or projects might lend themselves to formal group work. He thinks about how he will organize students into groups, help groups negotiate among themselves, provide feedback to the groups, and evaluate the products of group work. Carefully explain to his class how the groups will operate and how students will be graded. As he would when making any assignment, explain the objectives of the group task and define any relevant concepts. In addition to a well defined task, every group needs a way of getting started, a way of knowing when its task is done, and some guidance about the
(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research(LUAN.VAN.THAC.SI).Using.group.work.activities.to.reduce.students''.speaking.anxiety.an.action.research
participation of members. Also explain how students will be graded. Keep in mind that group work is more successful when students are graded against a set standard than when they are graded against each other (on a curve).
1.2.3 Teacher’s role in carrying out group work
Teachers who have never before got the ideas of relinquishing any of their total control in class have to adopt new attitudes to the teaching and learning process in large class. They should get acquaintance to giving the stage to learners, and letting student self- access and cooperative learning happen in language class.
For this reason, apart from the traditional functions as the main source of knowledge and the only assessor of correctness and errors in students‟ work, the teacher plays such different roles in-group work as an organizer, a controller, an assessor, a prompter, and a participant (Harmer, 1991:124) (Cited in English Now- The magazine of Vietnam‟s English Teacher and trainer net work. (Issue 15- Winter 9- 2008)