The Value of Pair and Group Work for Second Language Learning - Essay Example

work Language is a unique means of communicating one’s view/idea with others. The native speaker of a language has grown up with the language and does not have any difficult in encoding and decoding the message uttered in the language. The aim of learning a second language is to achieve the same linguistic competence that the native speaker of the language possesses. Thesis statement: An investigation to prove the value of pair and group work for second language learning and weaknesses of interactionist studies in classroom environment. 4a. Value of pair and group work for a second language teacher in classroom environment The educational field is undergoing rapid change because the world is advancing towards development. But some teachers are not yet ready to change and accept change. Besides, they are unconvinced about the value of using pair and group work in the classroom environment. From another angle of view, the mind-set of student community towards pedagogical innovation deeply influences its effectiveness in the classroom environment. This view has been supported in the work of Hinkel (2005, P. 141). The value of pair and group work in classroom environment is that it helps learners gets enough opportunity to practice the language. For instance, pair and group work help the learners to have enough time for oral practice. Besides, less confident learners get exposure to put newly acquired language skills into practice. Pair and group work in classroom environment leads to less dependence on teacher, helping and learning enhances language acquisition. Pair and group work change the traditional role of the individual teacher in classroom environment. Group work is helpful for the learners to share their ideas with their peers. In addition, learning experience in classroom environment under the supervision of teacher enhances the learning process. Dividing the class into different groups consist of gifted, fast learners, average students and below average students is helpful for the student community to develop their language skills. Besides, pair and group work helps the teacher to provide individual attention to each and every student. Grouping the students by considering their ability or language proficiency is not democratic but it leads to the failure of classroom instruction and tasks formulated by the teacher. This view has been supported in the work of Genesee (1994, p.186). The traditional mode of classroom instruction based on the teacher is not democratic. In this situation, teacher is lecturing and the students are mere listeners. They do not get enough opportunity to share their ideas with the teacher. Besides, teacher gets less time to evaluate the progress of his/her students. But, the feedback session conducted after pair and group works helps each and every student to share their experience. But the teacher must show keen interest and insight to include all types of students in pairing and grouping to complete tasks. For instance, while formulating pair works, teacher can pair a gifted and below average student and can ask the gifted student to help the below average student in completing the task. The opportunity provided to the below average student to present the completed work in front of the whole class helps him/her to be confident. This type of learning experience, learning by doing helps the students to have cohesive feeling. When a student is exposed to a new language, the influence of mother tongue acquired without any special effort or force from the side of others hinder further progress. But effective of pair and group work in classroom environment, formulated by the teacher by considering the learning capacity of the students is helpful to raise their confidence level. When a foreign language is introduced as a second language in the classroom environment, teacher faces a number of problems related to classroom instruction. First of all, second language is not the mother tongue and the teacher must be so careful to have maximum participation from the side of the students. If the teacher is not capable to acquire the confidence of the students, the classroom instruction will become mechanical and artificial. But teacher’s interaction and effort to inculcate pair and group works force the students to be enthusiastic towards the second language. But ultimate control from the side of the teacher forces the students to be inactive. So, the teacher can stay back and allow students to discuss themselves and to share their ideas. So, pair and group work in classroom environment is a slight deviation from the traditional mode of instruction which revolves around the teacher. The pair and group work in the classroom environment allow enough space to inculcate innovation to the field of second language learning and is more democratic and child oriented than traditional mode of classroom instruction. Input, interaction and output The role of input, interaction and output is most significant in effective learning of any language, especially second language. Regular exposure to input provided by the teacher helps the learner to perceive the target language. But all the input provided by the teacher may not be perceived by the learner. Individual difference and individual capacity to learn a new language other than one’s mother tongue decide the success of language acquisition. Gass and Selinker (2001) support the view that input alone cannot help the learner to acquire a language. Mere contact with the target language may not be helpful for the learner but regular exposure to structures is really helpful. When one consider the role of interaction in language acquisition, interaction with a native speaker is most helpful to develop speaking skills. In a classroom environment, interaction with peers helps the learner to cooperate with others by sharing their ideas. For instance, when the teacher asks a group/pair member to summarise/define/explain the effectiveness of language oriented tasks, it will help the learner to share his/her ideas with others and the teacher can understand the effectiveness of task/learning situation. So one can see that interaction and its evaluation helps the teacher and student community to have deeper understanding. Besides, interaction leads to interdependence and cohesive feeling within groups/pairs. But development of speaking skills without writing skills and mastery in grammar cannot be considered as the proper way to acquire a language. Besides, it is difficult to accommodate the service/help of a native speaker in the traditional classroom environment. But the teacher can invite a native speaker to the classroom and can provide a real time experience for the learners. Besides, the teacher can ask the learners to listen/view audio/video tapes which contain recorded audio/video of native speakers. All these tasks formulated by individual teachers according to the capacity of their students vary according to situations. If the teacher is capable enough to formulate innovative and interesting tasks related to pair and group works, the classroom instruction will become interesting and successful. So, one can see that the role of the teacher beyond the influence of out dated learning theories and the process of inculcating pair and group works is helpful to have positive output. The input provided by the teacher helps to learners to interact and will lead to positive output/outcome. The output level of the learners help the teacher to assess the effectiveness/drawbacks of the tasks provided in the classroom, and to formulate innovative learning tasks to overcome the weaknesses. So, one can see that the pair and group tasks formulated by individual teachers decide the output level of the learners. The teachers can formulate formal instruction by following traditional teacher oriented instruction. This will not be helpful for a language teacher, especially a second language teacher. On the other side, teacher can formulate pair and group works to guide the learners to learn the language in their own pace, without any external influence. Besides, the inculcation of pair and group works in the classroom environment helps the learners to have confidence in his/her abilities. The effectiveness of language learning tasks is relative because no one can predict the capacity of the teacher to provide interesting learning tasks and the capacity of student community to acquire language skills. First of all, the aim of a second language teacher is to equip his/her students to acquire the four skills i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing. So teacher must lead students towards language rules which act as the foundation of language learning. Basic knowledge on language rules is essential for a student to acquire proficiency in a specific language. Most of the teachers make use of rule based and memory based tasks to teach grammar. The tasks which aim to develop speaking skill must allow sufficient time for the learner to plan before oral production. For instance, teacher can plan pre-planned and spontaneous discourses. Teacher can assist the learner by providing interesting topics and enough time to prepare. This helps the learner to plan the speech at his/her own pace. But unplanned discourse does not allow enough time for the learner to prepare for the speech. For instance, teacher can disclose the topic for the speech in the class and randomly select students for the speech. If the topic selected by the teacher is tough, the output will not be positive and interesting. For instance, teacher can ask the students to speak about their friends or about a film that they happen to view recently. Besides, planned and unplanned discourses are helpful to develop accuracy and speed. The communicative situations that can be formulated by a language teacher help the individual learner to speak on any interesting subject. Besides, tasks which aim to develop fluency is helpful to lead the learner to real time communication with his/her peers in the class room environment. The tasks which aim to develop accuracy are helpful for the student to handle different real time situations, inside the classroom. But the most effective language learning task is the democratic mode of instruction. The democratic mode of instruction deviates itself from teacher oriented class room instruction to child oriented pair and group work in classroom environment. 4b. Weaknesses in interactionist studies and classroom practice Interactionist studies deals with language development in biological and social environment of an individual. Besides, interactionists make clear that proper interaction between learner’s language abilities and proper environment (say, linguistic environment) leads to language acquisition. Vygotsky, the eminent interactionist who formulated model of Collaborative learning makes clear that conversation with elders is so helpful to instil language skills in a learner. Besides, Vygotsky deeply supported that speech is an effective medium for communication and interaction with each other. This view has been supported in the work of Daniels (2005, P.37). But when a second language teacher tries to adopt the model of collaborative learning in the classroom environment, it is difficult to make sure the participation of elders (say, native speakers) in a classroom environment. The interactionist point out that, environmental factors are more dominant in language acquisition. When this idea is super imposed to that of second language learning, it is difficult to create natural environment for the target language. For instance, if a second language teacher in Germany aims to guide his/her students to learn English as a second language, it will be so difficult to create natural environment of the target language. If the environmental factor which helps the native learners is created, it may not be that much perfect and there is high chance for artificiality. The interactionists point out that social interaction for a learner in learning process is important. Ellis and Fotos (1999) support the view that one can easily identify interpersonal and intrapersonal interaction as the key factor in language acquisition. Besides, social mediation during interaction is so helpful for the learner in construction of new language. But when this interactionist idea is applied in a second language classroom environment there is less scope for social mediation. For instance, a second language teacher in English or any other language faces the problem of social mediation because the classroom environment consists of individual teachers and his/her students. The scope of social interaction while learning second language in a classroom environment is limited to the skill acquired by the teacher. The interactionist believe that foreign talk in class room environment enhance language learning capacity of an individual. But when a foreign language is taught as a second language in the class room, the individual teacher faces the problem of bias in foreign talk. For instance, a non-native English teacher faces the problem of mother tongue influence like his/her students. So, one can see that second language is a foreign language to the individual teacher and this create much problem in class room instruction and skill development. If the teacher is a foreigner whose mother tongue is the target language, the problem related to second language teaching is out of focus. The interactionists believe that learning occurs when language is used for communication purpose. But the scope of second language as a mode of communication is interrupted by mother tongue as the medium of expression. Besides, the interactionists believe that interaction with teacher and peers in the class room environment and the usage of target language as the medium of expression leads to progress. So, ample support from the teacher and one’s peers is helpful to acquire a foreign language as a second language. Interactionists point out that maximum personal involvement in communication leads to progress in second language learning. But mother tongue influence and related factors limit the scope of a foreign language in communication. Summing up, involvement of second language teacher in class room environment by helping the learner by the means of explanations demonstrations and creating opportunities for co operative learning leads to progress. Besides, pair and group work for second language learning is helpful to inculcate innovation in teaching-learning process in a classroom environment and it is more democratic and child-oriented than traditional mode of classroom instruction. The points mentioned above make clear that Interactionist studies and ideas in second language instruction and learning is with some weaknesses. When it is applied on classroom practice, the progress is limited and is deeply indebted to the skill of the individual teacher and the personal involvement and effort taken by the learner. References Daniels, H., 2005. An introduction to Vygotsky. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Ellis, R. & Fotos, S., 1999. Learning a second language through interaction.1st ed. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Gass, S.M. & Selinker, L., (2001). Second language acquisition: an introductory course. 2nd ed. Mahwah: Routledge. Genesee, F., 1994. Educating second language children: the whole child, the whole curriculum, the whole community. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hinkel, E., 2005. Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning. 1st ed. New Jersey: Routledge. Read More