论文部分内容阅读
Abstract：Research has demonstrated that an important factor in successful student studies is the opportunity for students to work in groups. While many college English classrooms are adopting group work approach, there appears to be one serious problem with group work - classroom silence. It means some students often keep silent during this group study process. This paper will present a brief introduction of group work, and focus on the reasons for classroom silence, and then give some feasible suggestions to enhance effective group work in college English classroom.
Keywords：group work, English classroom, classroom silence, effectiveness
中图分类号：Ｈ３１文献标识码：A文章编号：1812-2485（200８）0３-039-0１1
一、Introduction
（一）A brief introduction to group work
In the late 1980s, cooperative learning began to be popular in Europe. It is generally believed that people can accomplish more by sharing their skills and resources than by working alone. So compared to the traditional teaching methods, students instructed by this kind of approach tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes.
One typical way of cooperative learning is group work. Generally speaking, there are three types of group work: informal learning groups, formal learning groups, and study teams (http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html).
Informal learning groups are a temporary clustering of students within a single class session. Informal learning groups can be initiated, for example, by asking students to turn to a neighbor and spend two minutes discussing a question the teacher has posed. The teacher can also form groups of three to five to solve a problem or pose a question, or can organize informal groups at any time in a class of any size to check on students' understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace.
Formal learning groups are teams established to complete a specific task, such as write a report or carry out a project. These groups may complete their work in a single class session or over several weeks. Typically, students work together until the task is finished, and their project is graded.
Study teams are long-term groups (usually existing over the course of a semester) with stable membership whose primary responsibility is to provide members with support, encouragement, and assistance in completing course requirements and assignments. Study teams also inform their members about lectures and assignments when someone has missed a session. The larger the class and the more complex the subject matter, the more valuable study teams can be.
In the present college classroom, the former two are usually used. However, the suggestions mentioned in the Part Four are intended to help set up formal learning groups and study teams.
（二）Advantages and disadvantages in using group work
There are many educational benefits in using group work. First, from the affective domain, by providing learners with opportunities to engage in, group work can make learners feel less anxious because it can provide learners with the sense of security and unity (Brown, 2001); it can establish good relationship between the teacher and learners; it can also be motivating because it can fulfill the human needs for experiencing competence, relatedness and autonomy (Xu, 2005). In this case, group work can directly enhance learning. Second, when students have to explain and negotiate their contributions to a group project, it assists them in developing and increasing their meta-cognitive awareness and provides opportunities to them for developing specific generic skills, such as team work, organizational and time management skill, negotiation, co-operation, leadership, analytical skills. In addition, Group work can reduce the workload involved in assessing, grading and providing feedback to students. In simple terms, if students submit group assignments, the number of pieces of work to be assessed can be vastly reduced. This prospect might be particularly attractive for staff teaching large classes.
However, there are also problems and challenges in using group work. First, participating in group activities can advantage some students and disadvantage others. For some students, they have developed independent study habits and are strongly oriented towards their own personal achievement. These students may perceive little value for their own learning in group activities, or may be frustrated by the need to negotiate. In this case, teams may fall apart. Second, it is difficult to grade individual input. But most students expect the grading practices can reflect the levels of performance of each student, so that the shirkers would receive relatively low grades and those who make a more significant contribution would be rewarded more. In addition, it is inevitable to spend considerable time in organizing the group and planning action.
With all kinds of problems, there is no best model for group work. But teachers can apply this approach according to the real student needs analysis and adjust the teaching styles and strategies to maximize the student participation. In the following part, I’d like to focus on a particular issue: classroom silence.
2. Reasons for classroom silence
One serious problem with group work is classroom silence. It is common to see that in college English classroom, especially with students majoring in science, when the teaching approach of group work is adopted, usually only one or two students in each group are actively engaged while others keep silent and seem to ignore the proceedings all together. Because of this, the classroom environment is not truly dynamic, supportive or collaborative. Though many studies have carried out on this issue and researchers have given all kinds of suggestions, engaging everyone in group discussions still proves to be a real problem for most English teachers.
Silence has long been associated with the classroom communication behavior of Chinese students. Different explanations for classroom silence have been documented in the literature. There are cognitive factors (like prior learning experience, background knowledge or mental readiness), pedagogical factors (like teaching styles, participation as a course requirement, and opportunities to speak up), and affective factors (like anxiety, motivation, or risk taking). The multiple interactions among all these factors are likely to indicate the explanations of the silent behavior of Chinese student.
However, through observation and student interviews and teacher interviews, I found another factor, and perhaps the most important one, is that many students have a belief in the traditional Chinese maxim learned since primary school that ‘silence is golden’. They tend to show respect for others by keeping silent, or the norm of being a good listener in order to be a good student. This sociocultural factor actually reflects a culture’s deep-seated values and beliefs. For most Chinese people, it is the conventional image of a schoolroom- the teacher standing at the front of the class ‘teaching’ and the students sitting in rows listening. Throughout the teacher keeps control of the subject matter, make decisions about what work is needed and orchestrates what the students do. It is generally accepted that it is the teacher’s job to pass over knowledge to the students and he should do almost all of the talking in this classroom. When group work is adopted, some students hold that it is no need discussing with the classmates. They just expect that the teacher can offer them with the right answer a moment later; some think that if the main task of the class is to settle problem by themselves, they can’t see the teacher’s role in the classroom. They may feel frustrated.
On the other hand, in traditional Chinese education, the teacher is usually considered as the unquestioned authority. Whether one believes in Confucian deference to authority and one’s elders or more recent educational development, it is clear that most Chinese accept students’ classroom silence as both natural and beneficial. Even in recent decades, when communicative competence has drawn much attention and students are encouraged to actively participate, it is still usually in the model that the teacher initiates interaction with a question, a student responds with an answer, and the teacher evaluates the correctness of the student’s answer. In this case, it is clear that students’ major role in the classroom is to listen attentively in order to take notes and master the knowledge offered by the teacher who is regarded as the ‘knower’.
三、Suggestions to enhance effective group work
Considering the significance that more active communication can play in Chinese classrooms, here I’d like to offer some suggestions that may further help introduce students to group work.
（一）Building the meta-awareness of learning English
For many non-English majors, the motivation of learning English is not strong enough and most are satisfied with passing the course exam. Teachers can conduct some activities encouraging students to reflect on the importance of learning English and the benefits of cooperative learning approaches as an introduction to active group-centered communication. We can also encourage student to reflect on the values and behaviors traditionally found in Chinese classroom, for example, the teacher-centered ‘banking’ mode of education. Questioning the roles of teachers and students can not only situate communicative language learning in proper perspective, but also can give students a greater sense of engagement in the classroom.
（二）Forming and guiding classroom groups
As Earl Stevick points out, Compared to materials, strategies and language point analysis, successful student study depends more on the group itself and the relationship between the group members (cited in Li, 2006).
There are basically four commonly practiced grouping options: self-initiated grouping (students form groups based on their own needs or convenience); assigned grouping (students are placed into groups by the teacher randomly or purposefully); task-based grouping (switching students among groups across assignments); and long-standing grouping (stabilizing groups throughout the semester). Each of these options may or may not work well under different circumstances. Teachers should explain the pros and cons of each option to students and give them opportunities to try different groupings and ask them what works best for them. Adjustments are necessary if needed.
The number of students in a group can affect the grouping effectiveness. In general, groups of four or five members work best. Larger groups decrease each member's opportunity to participate actively. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be. The shorter amount of time available, the smaller the groups should be. (http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html).
Jacobs once said that setting the students in groups cannot ensure the group study (cited in Li, 2006). That means the teachers should guide or help the establishing of the roles and responsibility of group members. First, give students adequate time to familiarize themselves with one another. This is helpful to establish mutual acceptance interdependence between the group members. Then a discussion can be carried to help students understand what they should do as group members, what their responsibilities are in a group, what goals and objectives they can negotiate with others, and how they can communicate effectively with other members. Such activities are important in helping students make engaged and informed decisions with grouping.
（三）Designing group work
When designing group work, teachers should keep in mind these following principles: the group tasks should be relevant and require interdependence; the group tasks should fit the students' skills and abilities; the group tasks should allow for a fair division of labor; competitions should be set up among groups.
（四）The teacher as classroom researchers
Teachers should act as classroom researchers. During the group work, teachers have their own roles. For example, organizing learning groups and evaluating group work. Bu t their most important role, in my opinion, should be the classroom researchers. As Nunan points out, the teacher-initiated action research can help teachers gain understanding of and enhance their teaching (Nunan,1991). Kemmis and Mctaggart provide a four-stage cycle for such research. That is, planning, action, observation and reflection (cited in Nunan, 1991).Classroom research or action research will enable teachers to discover all possible direct or indirect reasons when group work doesn’t work, and then make some adjustments to their teaching strategies. These factors include: group size, student gender and age, student major of study, the nature of the group task, the length of group work, student oral proficiency and other language skills and the time given to group activities, etc.
四、Conclusion
When group work does not work, we should first of all understand why it does not work. Based on this concept, this paper has tried to step outside of the immediate classroom environment to investigate larger cultural concerns, hoping to gain a broader and more nuanced perspective. While addressing the sociocultural implications of introducing students to group-based communication is essential, teachers should also think critically about the complex dynamics involved in forming and guiding classroom groups. What’s more important, teachers should act as classroom researchers to discover the possible factors affecting the effectiveness of group work, to seek some tentative solutions to resolve all kinds of problems, and to adjust the teaching strategies to maximize the participation of the students.
References
[1]Brown, H.D. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001
Nunan, D. Language Teaching Methodology: a textbook for teachers [M]. UK:
[2]Prentice Hall International Ltd, 1991. Xu, L.Q, The significance of group work in generating motivation and reducing anxiery [J]. Sino-US English Teaching, 2005. 9.
[3]李洁莉.大学英语小组活动中的群体动力力学机制[J]，绍兴文理学院学报，2006.12.39-42。
Keywords：group work, English classroom, classroom silence, effectiveness
中图分类号：Ｈ３１文献标识码：A文章编号：1812-2485（200８）0３-039-0１1
一、Introduction
（一）A brief introduction to group work
In the late 1980s, cooperative learning began to be popular in Europe. It is generally believed that people can accomplish more by sharing their skills and resources than by working alone. So compared to the traditional teaching methods, students instructed by this kind of approach tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes.
One typical way of cooperative learning is group work. Generally speaking, there are three types of group work: informal learning groups, formal learning groups, and study teams (http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html).
Informal learning groups are a temporary clustering of students within a single class session. Informal learning groups can be initiated, for example, by asking students to turn to a neighbor and spend two minutes discussing a question the teacher has posed. The teacher can also form groups of three to five to solve a problem or pose a question, or can organize informal groups at any time in a class of any size to check on students' understanding of the material, to give students an opportunity to apply what they are learning, or to provide a change of pace.
Formal learning groups are teams established to complete a specific task, such as write a report or carry out a project. These groups may complete their work in a single class session or over several weeks. Typically, students work together until the task is finished, and their project is graded.
Study teams are long-term groups (usually existing over the course of a semester) with stable membership whose primary responsibility is to provide members with support, encouragement, and assistance in completing course requirements and assignments. Study teams also inform their members about lectures and assignments when someone has missed a session. The larger the class and the more complex the subject matter, the more valuable study teams can be.
In the present college classroom, the former two are usually used. However, the suggestions mentioned in the Part Four are intended to help set up formal learning groups and study teams.
（二）Advantages and disadvantages in using group work
There are many educational benefits in using group work. First, from the affective domain, by providing learners with opportunities to engage in, group work can make learners feel less anxious because it can provide learners with the sense of security and unity (Brown, 2001); it can establish good relationship between the teacher and learners; it can also be motivating because it can fulfill the human needs for experiencing competence, relatedness and autonomy (Xu, 2005). In this case, group work can directly enhance learning. Second, when students have to explain and negotiate their contributions to a group project, it assists them in developing and increasing their meta-cognitive awareness and provides opportunities to them for developing specific generic skills, such as team work, organizational and time management skill, negotiation, co-operation, leadership, analytical skills. In addition, Group work can reduce the workload involved in assessing, grading and providing feedback to students. In simple terms, if students submit group assignments, the number of pieces of work to be assessed can be vastly reduced. This prospect might be particularly attractive for staff teaching large classes.
However, there are also problems and challenges in using group work. First, participating in group activities can advantage some students and disadvantage others. For some students, they have developed independent study habits and are strongly oriented towards their own personal achievement. These students may perceive little value for their own learning in group activities, or may be frustrated by the need to negotiate. In this case, teams may fall apart. Second, it is difficult to grade individual input. But most students expect the grading practices can reflect the levels of performance of each student, so that the shirkers would receive relatively low grades and those who make a more significant contribution would be rewarded more. In addition, it is inevitable to spend considerable time in organizing the group and planning action.
With all kinds of problems, there is no best model for group work. But teachers can apply this approach according to the real student needs analysis and adjust the teaching styles and strategies to maximize the student participation. In the following part, I’d like to focus on a particular issue: classroom silence.
2. Reasons for classroom silence
One serious problem with group work is classroom silence. It is common to see that in college English classroom, especially with students majoring in science, when the teaching approach of group work is adopted, usually only one or two students in each group are actively engaged while others keep silent and seem to ignore the proceedings all together. Because of this, the classroom environment is not truly dynamic, supportive or collaborative. Though many studies have carried out on this issue and researchers have given all kinds of suggestions, engaging everyone in group discussions still proves to be a real problem for most English teachers.
Silence has long been associated with the classroom communication behavior of Chinese students. Different explanations for classroom silence have been documented in the literature. There are cognitive factors (like prior learning experience, background knowledge or mental readiness), pedagogical factors (like teaching styles, participation as a course requirement, and opportunities to speak up), and affective factors (like anxiety, motivation, or risk taking). The multiple interactions among all these factors are likely to indicate the explanations of the silent behavior of Chinese student.
However, through observation and student interviews and teacher interviews, I found another factor, and perhaps the most important one, is that many students have a belief in the traditional Chinese maxim learned since primary school that ‘silence is golden’. They tend to show respect for others by keeping silent, or the norm of being a good listener in order to be a good student. This sociocultural factor actually reflects a culture’s deep-seated values and beliefs. For most Chinese people, it is the conventional image of a schoolroom- the teacher standing at the front of the class ‘teaching’ and the students sitting in rows listening. Throughout the teacher keeps control of the subject matter, make decisions about what work is needed and orchestrates what the students do. It is generally accepted that it is the teacher’s job to pass over knowledge to the students and he should do almost all of the talking in this classroom. When group work is adopted, some students hold that it is no need discussing with the classmates. They just expect that the teacher can offer them with the right answer a moment later; some think that if the main task of the class is to settle problem by themselves, they can’t see the teacher’s role in the classroom. They may feel frustrated.
On the other hand, in traditional Chinese education, the teacher is usually considered as the unquestioned authority. Whether one believes in Confucian deference to authority and one’s elders or more recent educational development, it is clear that most Chinese accept students’ classroom silence as both natural and beneficial. Even in recent decades, when communicative competence has drawn much attention and students are encouraged to actively participate, it is still usually in the model that the teacher initiates interaction with a question, a student responds with an answer, and the teacher evaluates the correctness of the student’s answer. In this case, it is clear that students’ major role in the classroom is to listen attentively in order to take notes and master the knowledge offered by the teacher who is regarded as the ‘knower’.
三、Suggestions to enhance effective group work
Considering the significance that more active communication can play in Chinese classrooms, here I’d like to offer some suggestions that may further help introduce students to group work.
（一）Building the meta-awareness of learning English
For many non-English majors, the motivation of learning English is not strong enough and most are satisfied with passing the course exam. Teachers can conduct some activities encouraging students to reflect on the importance of learning English and the benefits of cooperative learning approaches as an introduction to active group-centered communication. We can also encourage student to reflect on the values and behaviors traditionally found in Chinese classroom, for example, the teacher-centered ‘banking’ mode of education. Questioning the roles of teachers and students can not only situate communicative language learning in proper perspective, but also can give students a greater sense of engagement in the classroom.
（二）Forming and guiding classroom groups
As Earl Stevick points out, Compared to materials, strategies and language point analysis, successful student study depends more on the group itself and the relationship between the group members (cited in Li, 2006).
There are basically four commonly practiced grouping options: self-initiated grouping (students form groups based on their own needs or convenience); assigned grouping (students are placed into groups by the teacher randomly or purposefully); task-based grouping (switching students among groups across assignments); and long-standing grouping (stabilizing groups throughout the semester). Each of these options may or may not work well under different circumstances. Teachers should explain the pros and cons of each option to students and give them opportunities to try different groupings and ask them what works best for them. Adjustments are necessary if needed.
The number of students in a group can affect the grouping effectiveness. In general, groups of four or five members work best. Larger groups decrease each member's opportunity to participate actively. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be. The shorter amount of time available, the smaller the groups should be. (http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/collaborative.html).
Jacobs once said that setting the students in groups cannot ensure the group study (cited in Li, 2006). That means the teachers should guide or help the establishing of the roles and responsibility of group members. First, give students adequate time to familiarize themselves with one another. This is helpful to establish mutual acceptance interdependence between the group members. Then a discussion can be carried to help students understand what they should do as group members, what their responsibilities are in a group, what goals and objectives they can negotiate with others, and how they can communicate effectively with other members. Such activities are important in helping students make engaged and informed decisions with grouping.
（三）Designing group work
When designing group work, teachers should keep in mind these following principles: the group tasks should be relevant and require interdependence; the group tasks should fit the students' skills and abilities; the group tasks should allow for a fair division of labor; competitions should be set up among groups.
（四）The teacher as classroom researchers
Teachers should act as classroom researchers. During the group work, teachers have their own roles. For example, organizing learning groups and evaluating group work. Bu t their most important role, in my opinion, should be the classroom researchers. As Nunan points out, the teacher-initiated action research can help teachers gain understanding of and enhance their teaching (Nunan,1991). Kemmis and Mctaggart provide a four-stage cycle for such research. That is, planning, action, observation and reflection (cited in Nunan, 1991).Classroom research or action research will enable teachers to discover all possible direct or indirect reasons when group work doesn’t work, and then make some adjustments to their teaching strategies. These factors include: group size, student gender and age, student major of study, the nature of the group task, the length of group work, student oral proficiency and other language skills and the time given to group activities, etc.
四、Conclusion
When group work does not work, we should first of all understand why it does not work. Based on this concept, this paper has tried to step outside of the immediate classroom environment to investigate larger cultural concerns, hoping to gain a broader and more nuanced perspective. While addressing the sociocultural implications of introducing students to group-based communication is essential, teachers should also think critically about the complex dynamics involved in forming and guiding classroom groups. What’s more important, teachers should act as classroom researchers to discover the possible factors affecting the effectiveness of group work, to seek some tentative solutions to resolve all kinds of problems, and to adjust the teaching strategies to maximize the participation of the students.
References
[1]Brown, H.D. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001
Nunan, D. Language Teaching Methodology: a textbook for teachers [M]. UK:
[2]Prentice Hall International Ltd, 1991. Xu, L.Q, The significance of group work in generating motivation and reducing anxiery [J]. Sino-US English Teaching, 2005. 9.
[3]李洁莉.大学英语小组活动中的群体动力力学机制[J]，绍兴文理学院学报，2006.12.39-42。