CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK

In the next session, participants looked at pair work and group work and how to use these classroom arrangements with large classes. They looked at:

• the stages of pair work and group work

• some of the difficulties in organisation and possible solutions

• how to divide the class

Then they practised using pair work and group work to see if the theory worked in practice! Here are some of the results of this session:

"What are the stages of pair work or group work activity?"
In answer to this question, participants in Yen Bai produced the following checklist:

1 Give Clear INSTRUCTIONS (using voice, gesture, blackboard etc.)
2 CHECK that students have understood your instructions
3 DIVIDE the class into pairs or groups
4 CHECK that all students know who to work with
5 Give students TIME TO PREPARE
6 Give a signal to START the activity
7 MONITOR
a) to CHECK students are doing the activity
b) to LISTEN to students' English
8 Give a signal to STOP the activity
9 Give FEEDBACK on the activity and on the language that students used.

The main reason why pair work and group work are important is because if you use these techniques, your students will have many more opportunities to practise their English. It is that simple! If your students speak one by one, in a 45-minute class, each student (at best!) will have LESS THAN ONE MINUTE to communicate in English. With pair work and group work, the time students will have is increased dramatically. But there are some difficulties in using pair work and group work in the Vietnamese teaching context. Participants at the workshops thought about these difficulties and made the following suggestions:
Problems
Noise
Difficult to monitor
Difficult to control - students speak Vietnamese, misbehave etc.
Impossible to correct all students' mistakes
Students learn mistakes from each other
Suggestions
Think about the difference between 'productive' noise and 'unproductive' or 'naughty' noise. If it is 'productive', it is OK; speak to colleagues, your headmaster and your students to explain why 'productive' noise in an English classroom is necessary.

In a short activity, you can't listen to everyone. Choose some students this time and others next time.

Talk to your students about the benefits of pair work. Start off with short and simple activities and move to more complicated ones when your students understand how things work.

Be selective - choose common mistakes or mistakes connected to the language you are teaching.

If you correct as suggested above, this is probably not true! Students are more likely to learn good things from each other.

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