Increasing Students’ Performance in the English Lesson: Pair Work and Group Work

Abstract

AbstractThe current study is entitled “Increasing Students’ Performance in the English Lesson: Pair Work and Group Work”. To start with, pair work and group work have become common and effective techniques in the English lesson. They include the idea of dividing students into pair or groups depending on the task. The current is experimental. It is divided into two parts, namely: the theoretical part which covers pair work and group work (PW and GW henceforth) in detailed description in terms of concepts, advantages and disadvantages and related topics such as the communicative approach and learning versus acquisition. The practical part is experimental. It examines PW and GW in the English lesson. It includes the description of participants & methods and five activities which are explained in terms of aim, language skill, level, time, material, strategy, procedure and commentary. One problem of pair work and group work arises from the fact that some students are noisy and dominating. However, this problem is controlled of by careful monitoring. Besides, in some activities, the researcher has students who are always finishing their task first. Yet, this problem is solved by giving those students extra challenging tasks. Moreover, students who work in pairs or groups need to be observed carefully, i.e. members may defer to the oldest person there, or to the men in an otherwise female group. Some weak students may be lost when paired or grouped with stronger classmates. The study aims at examining how Iraqi students respond to pair work and group work and how productive and effective they in the English lesson. In the current work, the following procedures are followed: first of all, an introduction of the study. Secondly, explaining pair work and group work in terms of definition, advantages and disadvantages. Thirdly, conducting the practical part of the study which includes activities, which focus on speaking and vocabulary. Finally, the study ends up with conclusions and findings among which are: 1.Students have a direct contact with each other. This gives them the chance to read, write, listen and speak much more than they do with the traditional way of grouping. This supports the claim given earlier that PW and GW maximize learners’ talk and minimize teachers’ talk. 2.Students show two kinds of interaction. They tend to be cooperative when they work within one group and competitive when they against other groups. This is most notably seen in activity number one. 3.Students build up strong relationships with each other. They exchange E-mails, mobile phones, had launch together. They also apply what they have taught in the course in their real life when being together. 4.Students do not feel shy or worried. No one is there to laugh at their mistakes. They are not on the spotlight. In other words, PW and GW create an outlet to their negative feelings.