Nor Azmi b. Mustafa
Universiti
Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim
As a generic term, grouping is “…a way of organising students for teaching and learning.”
(Freiberg & Driscoll, 1992:32).
Many teachers think that grouping helps them individualise or match
their teaching to individual learners, while others see grouping as a way of
reducing the student crowds in the classrooms.
One of the ways of giving students more
of the time they require to practise a language than is possible in the ESL
classroom, is by dividing the class into groups. In this respect, the practice
can be controlled or cued, as in a drill, or more creatively, as in role-play
or discussion, where the focus is on communication rather than language
practice (Gower & Walters, 1983).
Having set up the practice, the teacher can then withdraw and monitor
what is going on, giving help only when necessary.
According to Sidin (1993), groups are
more than collections of individuals and are formed because members need to get
something done or to produce something using knowledge and skills. A specific purpose of group work is to
provide students with the knowledge and understanding of subject matter, while
at the same time focusing more on group dynamics where students are given
direct experience to behave and react in a group situation. In addition, group activity enables students
to acquire relevant skills of communication, skills of discussion and argument,
skills of interactive learning and cooperative inquiry and to develop
appropriate attitudes to learning and teaching.
In implementing grouping for the ESL classroom,
important considerations should be given to three main aspects. They are the teaching context, the teaching
content and the individual learner.
Teaching
Context
In self-contained classrooms (classrooms designed for
one group of students), a teacher’s grouping arrangement depends on a number of
factors. How the students’ seats are
arranged depends on the size of the class, the size of the groups, the types of
activities and the layout of the
furniture (Gower & Walters, 1983).
If possible, the teacher can move the furniture in the class to make use
of the corners of the room. However,
he/she should avoid a situation where all members of a group are only on one
side of a table, as it is important that they face each other. The teacher should also avoid separating the
members of a group too far, making it difficult for them to talk easily. The teacher can also assign informal
committees of students who go into action when a different arrangement is
needed.
If the teacher teaches in an open-space
school or in classroom without walls, he/she may have large spaces for grouping
but other kinds of concerns. Teachers
who work in such spaces must have common understanding with other teachers on
several aspects, so as to avoid misunderstandings. Firstly, they must establish common agreement about the standards
of student behaviour. Secondly, they
must establish common agreement on student movement. Thirdly, they must identify activities scheduled for minimum
noise. Lastly, they must coordinate the
arrangement and use of furniture, equipment and supplies.
Another contextual consideration is
time. In a self-contained classroom,
the teacher should make decisions about pace and schedule. Grouping is best scheduled in short time
periods, with opportunity for movement around the room between activities. Time
periods may vary, for example, with primary students (5-20 minutes) and lower
secondary students (20-40 minutes), as there are time limits in terms of
student attention and interest (Freiberg & Driscoll, 1992). In an open-space classroom, however, the
teacher is able to have more movement within and between groups, as well as
more concurrent group activities, making time less structured.
According to Freiberg and Driscoll
(1992), the kind of classroom that would best support grouping practices is a
cohesive classroom. In a cohesive
classroom, students develop socially and emotionally and are able to be group
members. In this respect, the classroom
teacher should consider the norms of the class to determine its cohesiveness.
Norms are shared expectations of how group members should think, feel and
behave (Weber, 1994). Norms greatly
influence interpersonal relationships because they provide guidelines that help
members understand what is expected of them and what they should expect from
others. Productive group norms are
essential to group effectiveness (Weber, 1994). Therefore, one important task of the teacher is to help the
group establish, accept and maintain productive group norms.
To achieve these, there must be frequent
opportunities for student interaction.
In this respect, several planned activities and assignments may provide
such opportunities. Student committees can be formed to design and construct
bulletin boards and displays. Student teams may also be responsible to discuss
and solve class problems. In addition,
student pairs may be encouraged to volunteer for classroom responsibilities,
and students may also be encouraged to critique each other’s work and assist
with revision. A teacher may have the
beginning of group development if students get to know each other well.
Therefore, to keep the interaction going, the teacher should change group
membership from time to time (e.g. every three to four weeks). He/She should
also provide opportunities for students to get to know those of differing
abilities.
Teaching Content
In considering the content of teaching, a teacher may
begin by identifying the intended outcomes, which may be knowledge or
understanding, skills or attitudes. As
students learn in groups, they can also achieve additional goals related to
working in groups.
Grouping provides the opportunity for
peer interpretation and sharing of experiences and insights. This is where, in small groups, students may
have more opportunities to paraphrase, explain, describe, ask for
clarification, and talk about content than what whole class interactions may
provide (Freiberg & Driscoll, 1992).
The teacher is often the only adult in the classroom, and there are
limits to the experience and insights he/she may bring. Therefore, each student can contribute
additional experiences and insights and in small groups, they have the
opportunities to do so.
Grouping can assist the
practice and feedback that must accompany a teacher’s teaching. A teacher may be able to effectively model
and describe a new skill to 30 students, for example, but it is difficult to provide
feedback to each and every individual.
In this respect, the grouping of students can provide peer coaching as
well as peer motivation (Freiberg & Driscoll, 1992). When students work in small groups to
practise a skill, they can coach each other’s learning. In each group, students can check each
other’s procedures and provide feedback.
There is also the advantage of peer motivation when students work in
groups. When students participate in a
small group, there is a personal quality to their work because others are aware
of their efforts, their successes and even their struggles. Motivation is higher in these situations,
especially when group members work on a group task. In this respect, complex tasks requiring well developed skills
are much better accomplished through group work than individual work (Weber,
1994).
The influence of group norms is
especially noticed when a teacher works on attitudes with students. In this respect, peer pressure is powerful,
even for young students. In ESL secondary
classrooms, social patterns and group sentiments influence how students respond
to an attitude or value that is new or different. Thus, to teach content with attitude and value outcomes, it is
necessary to provide opportunity for group discussions so that students can
hear different points of view, and as discussion permits free expressions of
opinions, its value in a language class is obvious (Cross, 1992). Students today are generally more
experienced and can contribute significantly to insightful discussions. Thus, with grouping, every student can be
involved in the activity.
Language Learner
Learners may bring individual differences, especially
in their participation and the kind of roles they play in language classroom
activities. Thus, grouping arrangements
may assist a teacher in accommodating learner differences by varying student
roles and varying the types of student involvement.
In a typical ESL classroom situation,
most students perform a listening role and a few have a speaking or active
role. In this respect, the level of
participation is high for a few and minimal for many. It is also usual to have one member of each group acting as a
leader or secretary (Cross, 1992). This
is the person who will go to the teacher with any difficulties or with a final
completed task. This makes class
management much easier. However, this
may create a situation where some students never experience leadership and some
never experience being followers.
According to Freiberg and Driscoll
(1992), cooperative learning strategies
can offer alternative choices by allowing for varied roles for different
experiences in the same activity.
Through cooperative learning, the range of roles can be expanded and
used in different grouping arrangements.
Some examples of the varied roles are as a Direction Giver, a
Summariser, a Generator, an Observer, a Record Keeper, a Reader, an Evaluator
and a Resource Person.
A teacher can accommodate learner
diversity by varying the types of involvement in groups. In this respect, within different group
structures, learners may be involved independently, cooperatively and
competitively. Even with a group task,
some learners go about their work in an isolated way, some work in coordination
with other learners, while others compete and work to be the best or the
fastest. Some examples of the varying
types of involvement are having a student share resources or materials, another
student clarify an idea,
still another to
provide examples and others to
provide
controversy
during group discussions.
Forming Groups
With respect to group size, the larger
the group, the broader the range of experiences, expertise, skills and
interests to contribute to the learning activity. The amount of materials may also determine the size of each
group, as also the amount of time allocated for the learning activity. In this respect, smaller groups can be more
efficient. In addition, the size of the
task and the number of component responsibilities may also determine group size. Larger groups of six members or more, may
require skills of coordination and collaboration for every individual to be
involved. However, larger groups have
the potential for members to be uninvolved or to dominate others.
With group work, it is also advisable
for the teacher to first mention which books or materials the students need before he/she fixes the
group size, so as to prevent a series of return journeys to fetch the necessary
items once the activity starts (Underwood, 1987). Thus, the teacher will realise that even though group size may
look like a simple decision, nevertheless, it has significant implications, as
according to Weber (1994), the teacher will find that variance in group size
will mean variance in student experience and learning. In assigning students to groups, a teacher
should begin by considering the outcomes that he/she wants the group to
achieve, and then proceed to select
suitable students. For example,
if the teacher wants the groups to develop sketches, then he/she would probably
need one or two creative individuals in each group. Thus, it is important for the teacher to consider diversity
in group composition.
Two main strategies for assigning
students to groups are random assignment and assignment by ability. For random assignment, Gower &Walters
(1983) suggest several ways where the teacher can be random. The teacher can give each student a number
(i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) and then ask all number 1’s, 2’s, 3’s
etc. to sit together. The teacher can
also blindfold as many people as there are to be groups, who then in turn touch
the people that are to be in their groups.
Another way is by dividing the class on the basis of horoscope
groupings, likes and dislikes, colour of clothes, hobbies, gender etc. The teacher can also have as many pieces of
string in the hand as there are to be pairs.
Students take an end and find their partner. Lastly, the teacher can give out to each student at random a card
with a word written on it. The students
then have to go round and find words related to the subject matter (e.g.
traffic light, road, car, etc.) and would then sit together in a group. With respect to assignment by ability, the
teacher may want to place students of similar ability levels in one group, a
strategy called ‘ability’or ‘homogeneous’grouping, or he/she may want to structure
each group with a representation of high ability, middle ability, and low
ability students, a strategy called ‘stratified’or ‘heterogeneous’ grouping
(Chitravelu, et al., 1995).
Other strategies for assigning students
to groups are assignment by social criteria and assignment by interest
(Freiberg & Driscoll, 1992). In
assignment by social criteria, the teacher may begin by assessing the social
skills and relationships among his/her students. The teacher will then consider grouping them to complement or to
provide diversity by mixing the ‘introverts’ with the ‘extroverts’ and the leaders with the followers. He/she can use sociogram information or
student lists of desired work partners or team members to guide him/her. Lastly, in assignment by interest, the
teacher can begin by first surveying his/her students’ interests, and then
grouping them together according to topics of shared interest. The teacher may find that there is nothing
more satisfying than to observe a group working on a topic that they are
interested in, sharing ideas and
working at an impressive momentum.
Conclusion
ESL teachers should think of
grouping as a way to appreciate all the unique individuals that they may have
the opportunity to meet and teach. In
this respect, they can begin with the process of information gathering, by
looking at their teaching context, reviewing their teaching content and by
getting to know their learners individually.
When all this information is taken into consideration, the teachers will
be ready to make effective decisions with regard to the process of grouping for
teaching and learning activities in ESL classrooms.
References
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Heights, MA:
Allyn and
Bacon.
Gower, R. & Walters, S. 1983. Teaching Practice Handbook. London:
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Books.
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