The magic power of group work in speaking and grammar lessons

                             中学英语

The magic power of group work in

speaking and grammar lessons 

A case study of teaching English in senior high schools

Abstract: Group work is often used in English teaching in senior schools. In the essay, group work is used in speaking and grammar lessons, and after the teaching experience, it is proved that the students can get engaged in the teaching activities more efficiently. They are busy with discussing the exercises in their group. After the discussion, they feel confident to express their opinions.

Key words:  group work    a speaking lesson     a grammar lesson

effiency

           The background of using group work in teaching

From the study conducted in my school, the lack of vocabulary and the basic grammar are the most important reasons for the students’ poor English. When the students do some reading comprehension, they meet many new words and long sentences with several clauses and non-finite verbs, which make them confused to understand. Therefore, they are unwilling to do more English reading and exercises, except that they are forced to do so. In my class, the students have relatively low level of English language ability. They seem to value too much on accuracy. They would rather not speak English, and answer any questions or the exercises given by the teacher, than make a mistake. They seem to be passive in the classroom activities, and hardly have a chance to experience success, especially in speaking lessons and grammar lessons.

The definition of group work

Group work is one of common learning forms in English teaching and learning, which can be carried out in class and after class. But this study mainly focuses on group work in class. In this activity, teacher’s role is to set a proper task for group work, give precise instruction, monitor the process and give students a hand when necessary. Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively. Unlike individual learning, students learning cooperatively can emphasize on one another’s resources and skills, like asking one another for information, evaluating one another’s ideas, monitoring one another’s work, etc.

   A case study of the group work in speaking lessons

My students are the second year in senior high with relatively low level English spoken ability. They pay much more attention to reading and writing than speaking, even some of them refuse to speak English for fear of their poor pronunciation and vocabulary, and bad grammar. I plan to gradually develop their spoken English and make them familiar with the vocabulary and sentence stems of daily and regular activities.

In this lesson