Think of one real-life example of group work that was overwhelmingly
successful. Discuss at least 3 reasons why it worked. Then imagine and
discuss a situation in which the same type of group work would probably
not work. Discuss why.
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In my language classes, the best group work was always group work of 3 or 4 where we had to create a "drama" without using notes. Whatever we were covering in class had to be included. For instance, if we were learning the imperfect, we'd have to incorporate that as much as possible and every participant would be expected to use it. My group chose to make an opera out of our drama and would sing the drama.
ReplyDeleteMost of the individuals in my Italian class were singers, so we were all very comfortable with performing and being the center of attention. So, for us, dramas, even impromptu ones, was fun and easy and we could really tell what we didn't know when we spontaneously conversed. However, I see how this may not work in a class of businessmen or individuals from a culture where acting silly was not acceptable. Those individuals need group work that makes them comfortable and what was comfortable for us would probably be frightening for most people.
My Spanish teacher had us play a game where one person said the alphabet in Spanish in our head and then another said stop. Whatever letter the alphabet person was thinking of was the letter we were to use for a 'team competition' involving topics such as clothing, or food. We would take turns giving answers, the teacher would write them on the board under our 'team' name and the team with the most answers was the winner. This worked great for three reasons: 1. It was fun. 2. We are all really competitive with each other (usually it is boys vs. girls). 3. It helped expand our vocabulary by tapping into each persons' knowledge base. 4. We are a small class so it is easily controllable and everyone gets a turn. I think that this would be difficult to manage with a large group of people, where some people could participate a lot and others could remain silent and 'hidden". Also, in a large group some people may be uncomfortable providing what might be a wrong answer, and would be content to let the other people do all the work.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite group work activity is the “Taboo Game”. The teacher divides the class into a group of four students. Student from each group take turns orally explaining a certain word to their group. When explaining the word, students should not say some words related to the target word. Each group has one minute to guess as many words as they can. The group that gets more words wins.
ReplyDeleteI remember doing this activity in an advanced class, and it was overwhelmingly fun and meaningful because some students tried to give example from their shared knowledge and experience to elicit the answer from their group. The words restriction added more challenge that kept the activity going on without the teacher help.
This activity won’t be this effective with lower level because they have a limited word bank to relay on. However, the teacher can modify the word, use text book vocabulary, give the student more time and have now word restriction.
The best group work I can think of was when we had to act out a “skit” about going to the store and buying things. We were in a pairs, and one would be the seller, the other the buyer. Then we had to use the vocabulary and the fake money to pretend to buy stuff. For example, one would say “how much is this?” the other would give a price, and then if it’s too expensive you’d try to bargain, if not you’d buy it, etc. (all in French though). I thought this was very successful for a couple of reasons. First, it was something that would happen in real life. Second, it was spontaneous. You didn’t know what the other person was going to say, so you had to come up with something on the spot. Third, is that it was enjoyable. We all liked doing the activity, and acting out as if we were in a real store buying things. I don’t think it would have worked if the topic was something too different and not real life. If for example, we just had to act part of a movie out, it would be scripted already, and no automaticity would occur. Also, that would probably require more than a pair, and then that would become too complicated. Each person would have a lesser role, and then it would be difficult for everyone to meet up and practice. However, I really think skits work for real-life situations (interviews, shopping, going to a doctor, etc…), because you can practice what it would be like in real life to communicate with whatever situation you are in.
ReplyDeleteIn a Spanish class, my teacher played a song. Then we split into teams and she gave us strips of paper with lines from the song. The second time she played the song, we had to put the lines in order. It was fun to work with the team to get the problem solved. Also, the song used a specific grammatical form that repeated, so it was a grammar lesson as well. It worked well because (1) the exercise was very fast paced. (2) It was more fun doing it as a team because each member could contribute. Also, (3) the grammar lesson was imbedded in the exercise and it made us see a real-world use of that grammar form.
ReplyDeleteI think in a lower level class, students might be frustrated if they couldn’t understand the song. Without the grammar lesson, the exercise might be fun but not beneficial. Finally, I can imagine a situation where some students might be offended by a song with a controversial message. (Know your students)
One group work I think is successful is a drama we performed in college studies. It was for oral English class and the teacher who was a native speaker asked us to choose a famous Chinese story, to write our own lines based on the story and perform it in class.
ReplyDeleteI think the reasons why it succeeded are: 1) We all chose our roommates as group members so we had lots of time to discuss the drama and how to perform it. Because it was a funny drama, we could make fun of each other in the whole process. So I think familiarity and trust are the first step for group work. 2) we all had chances to speak our own ideas and compared with others’ ideas and vote the best one. So respect and effective communication are important for group work. 3) we need to write our own lines for characters and put them together as a whole reasonable script. So everyone had its own responsibility and autonomy to do their job and at the same time we need to modify to be suitable for the whole.
If this group work doesn’t work well, I think the reasons may be that the group members are not familiar with each other or one or two members are so bossy that others have no opportunity to say their own opinions. The basic trust and respect are necessary for group work.
One of the most successful group activities I have seen recently was a discussion about English idioms at an ELI conversation club last semester. Each group had a pile of cards, each of which had an idiom and descriptive picture on it (and a description of what the idiom meant on the back). The group I was sitting with fell into a natural rhythm of taking turns displaying their cards and reading the idiom. Soon they were discussing similar idioms in their native language, asking me about meanings, and trying to figure out the contexts in which certain idioms could be used. Another volunteer told me that her group had used the gone through the cards one at a time, encouraging other group members to guess the meaning of the phrase before they read the back of the card.
ReplyDeleteI think this activity was so successful because it was simple, in an intermediate to advanced group who were motivated to learn (attendance was not mandatory), and did not have to achieve a set of institutional learning objectives. This was a great activity for just practicing English, and picking up some new vocabulary while doing so. However, I do not think this activity would work in a beginning level, required language course. In this setting, students would not yet have acquired enough language proficiency to be able to use idioms in daily speech, and so would find this information irrelevant to them, and perhaps be frustrated by such difficult material in a course they may not want to take.
One real-life example of group work that was overwhelmingly successful was when several friends and I met after Greek class in the afternoons to do our Greek homework. We all were very efficient but had a lot of fun, finishing our work with time to spare and achieving high grades in the class. We were successful because…
ReplyDelete1) We had a clear goal, set directions, and an established schedule.
Every class our teacher gave us homework so our goal was clear – finish the homework well. The homework was always the same format so after the first few classes, we knew the directions and what we needed to do to finish the assignment. Finally we had an established schedule. We’d come home, eat lunch, and then get started. It helped that all of us lived in the same apartment building so it was easy to get together.
2) We were highly motivated.
Our group was naturally driven and conscientious in personality so we were constantly focusing and re-focusing on the task at hand. We formed our group on our own initiative, so no one was telling to meet, but we had ownership. We all wanted the same thing and went after it hard.
3) We had established friendships.
Our group was self-formed so we picked who we wanted and naturally we picked our roommates/friends. This gave our group a level of comfort that we could be ourselves. Throughout the summer, our group developed many inside jokes and had a lot of fun, doing things outside of our work meeting time as well. This made the lightened the load of the sometimes laborious task of doing homework every class because we knew and could depend on each other.
In one of my Korean classes we had to have a group of 3 students create a script and then record ourselves acting it out. I usually don't like group work because I usually end up being the group leader and I have to fight to get my group to do their work. But in this instance everyone was on board with what we needed to do. We each had a part in coming up with the story line, the writing of the script, and even recording the acting. No one student was completely in charge and responsibility was shared equally.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons it worked were because the teacher gave us free range in creating a story, she had positive things to say each step, and everyone was excited about the actual project. The teacher didn't stifle the creativity of the students, the students worked well together, the teacher was part of the each step in the project's process, and no matter how bad our pronunciation or acting she only gave positive feedback. She seemed to understand how hard it was for us as students to work in another language and really do well.
Doing this activity in a community center type setting would probably not work. Partly because the funding for cameras and computer editing software is not available. Since this would end up being an extra curricular activity students might be hesitant to even try. And trying to get students to work in groups where English is a requirement for the recording might cause difficulties with the students. And trying to get the students to work in groups might cause issue when deciding on the hierarchy of the group. For example, older students might not like to take direction of younger students or younger students might feel like the older students' ideas might not fit their ideas' for a project.
Stefani Goode
The best group work scenario I've ever experienced was in my Intermediate Spanish course in college. I've mentioned this in class, but we were asked to form groups of 2-3 and together (outside of class) we had to find a recipe in Spanish, cook it, bring samples in for class and give a short presentation in Spanish on the history of the dish and the instructions for cooking it. This was a multi-step project and it required both written and oral production. Because this was a university class with students whose motivation level was overall fairly low, the fun and creativity included in this project was great. It engaged us in using what we had learned in a way that was both meaningful and enjoyable. I especially liked this activity because it also incorporated information about the cultures associated with the language we were learning and because there was a wide range of options to choose from in the target topic of recipes. This would not, however, be a short group work activity and might not be remotely interesting or helpful in a scenario such as an English for Business class or a class with students who had no interest in cooking or no access to the resources necessary to create the food.
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