2018

Question Number: 05
1. Is group work and pair work important in a language
classroom? Explain with appropriate examples.

Using varieties of seating arrangement and grouping of students is important

in a language classroom or any classroom because it allows the learners to
practice different types of things in enhance the learning. Students in a
language classroom receives many benefits from working in groups and pairs
as they study the language and pursue it. In fact group work and pair work
aids language learners in many ways even when they may not realize.

For many reasons pair and group work is important in a language classroom,
some of them are: Group work and pair work are student-centred rather
than teacher-centred therefore this gives students a real opportunity to see
how well they can communicate in their target language and gives the
learners more speaking time, team works allows the learners to enhance
both their individual and collective learning this also expose the learners to
new perspectives and disagreements, group and pair work is mostly useful
in developing the students speaking and listening skill in their target
language, learners become more competitive when they participate in group
and pair works because of this learners become motivated to study hard,
working in groups and pairs make the learners to get actively involved in the
process of learning which increase their desire and ability to learn their
target language, team work provides students with an opportunity to
improve their communication skill, collaboration and provides a larger
capacity for brainstorming different ideas.

Group work and pair work is a dynamic and active way of learning. Learning
cannot really take place unless the learners are directly involved in the
process of learning especially when learning a language. Hence, group and
pair work is important in a language classroom.
2. “Pair work and group work have both advantages and
disadvantages in second language classroom”. Explain the above
statement.

Pair work and group work is one of the most common and effective teaching
method used in the second language learning classroom and numerous
research studies have shown the benefits of collaborative learning in second
language learning. However, like in all teaching strategies, this also has its
own advantages and disadvantages.

Studies say that if students work together it can increase the quantity of
second language learners speech because in a group or pair work students
interact with one another rather than just listening to teachers, the anxiety
of speaking the second language can be reduced because speaking in front
of the peers is better than speaking in front of the whole class, learning can
be enhanced by pair and group work because it allows students to expose
new perspectives and provide opportunities to improve their
communication skills and collaboration skills, learners will enjoy more when
they get to work in groups and pairs and this will also increase the social
integration with each other.

But there are some disadvantages associated with pair and group work,
some of them are: when working in groups it is natural for disagreements to
arise because of differences in opinions, sometimes participation between
group members will be a problem because some will do all the works while
the others stay back but all will get rewarded, working in teams can be time-
consuming, when working in pairs and groups it is common for students to
get off-topic and use that time to gossip so, all this will make the group and
pair work session less effective and productive.

Pair work and group work is a good teaching strategies. However, the full
effectiveness and productivity can be achieved only when it is correctly done.