Use of pair work and group work to improve speaking skills in the class

INTRODUCTION: In the learning process of the second language, its important for the students to get a high level of language competence, however, this objective is not always reached, and this is the reason why the use of pair work and group work in class is effective to make the students communicate in a better way. Many times, in the EFL class, the students can be frustrated because of not being able to communicate, nevertheless, the human being is naturally sociable, so this fact can be used as a tool to improve students speaking skills, we need to consider many points when using this kind of activities, in order to make everyone participate and not to let just a few students do all the work while others are just losing interest and complaining about it. The use of group work and pair work, is a tool that gives a lot of advantages for the students and for the teacher, in the case of the students it is helpful because it improves the speaking abilities, and it allows them to express their ideas without feeling embarrassed, and for the teacher because he/she saves a lot of time, does not need to pay attention to the class the whole time as in the regular activities and he/she is able to focus his or her attention on the learner that really needs help.

CHAPTER I 1.1 Problem statement The main purpose of this investigation is to make students improve their speaking abilities, a good strategy to reach that goal is by using pair and group work in class, since one of the main problems of the learning process of the target language is the effective communication in regular situations, students need to be constantly practicing and one of the best ways of doing it is by talking to their partners, sometimes it can result boring just listening to the teacher, but if they talk to each other, part from improving their skills, they will find it interesting. When group work and pair work is developed in class, its important to make sure that the students are doing the activities correctly, even though these kind of strategies have a high level of effectiveness, sometimes there can be some obstacles to apply them, as the use of mother tongue or maybe a student in the group who wants to speak all the time and does not let the rest participate. 1.2 Statement of the objectives 1.2.1 General: The main goal can be summarized as the objective of making the students acquire a high level of communicative competence by the use of pair work and group work and helping the learner to use the second language in real life situations. 1.2.2 Specific: As a consequence of acquiring an improvement of speaking skills, students will be able to improve their listening skills as well. 1.3 Rationale The use of the strategies mentioned will be suitable in any kind of class due to the fact that everyone is naturally sociable, so the learners need to talk to their partners its just a natural need, during the development of this kind of activities, we need to consider a variety of factors which will influence over the process, its better to work with young students when using these activities. This part of the ELT process may be the most important, without it learning English and its main purpose which is communication would be impossible.

Chapter II 2.1 Review of Literature 2.1.1 Case Study PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK There are four kinds in which group work and pair work can be divided, those kinds are closed pairs, open pairs, closed groups and open groups. Open Pairs In this case only two people are talking while everybody else is listening, this activity can happen in two different ways. a) Teacher - Student Pairs This case happens when the teacher interacts with one student; for example a casual dialogue or a simple question of one of the students. b) Student students pairs In this case two students participate in a dialogue; for example when they are encouraged by the teacher or maybe spontaneously. Closed Pairs This kind of activity can be found in many books nowadays, the current tendency explains that when teaching English, one of the most important parts is the interaction. Books have exercises in which the learner needs to talk to others, as a consequence students not only improve their speaking skills, but also learn to be co-operative and not competitive. Open Groups They can be divided in two different ways. a) Teacher - Group In this case, the teacher plays a role as a monitor, s/he monitors a lot of groups at the same time, while they are working and focus his or her attention where the learners need help, mainly this kind of activity happens, when theres interaction between a group and the teacher. b) Group - Group It happens, for example, when theres a discussion between two groups to talk about their answers, in this case the teacher will not participate; he will just control what happens in the class.

Closed groups These kinds of groups have the objective of encouraging co-operation and problemsolving , by different activities they also help to develop the learners independence. 2.3 Control group TNB08 (5 months of study) 17:30 19:00 2.4 Experimental group TNB08 (5 months of study) 14:10 15:40 Instruments - Testing - Notes - Charting: Sociograms

Chapter III
Assumptions: After working with the experimental process, its assumed that students will: Work cooperatively Work in groups or pairs without being competitive Be more independent Will learn more effectively due to the teachers individually attention Increase their interest due to the human interaction style

Questions: What are the advantages of group work and pair work? Do teachers use group work appropriately? What are the disadvantages of group and pair work? What skills can students develop by the practice of group work and pair work?

Hypothesis: If students develop the work in groups and in pairs, in an appropriate way, they will be able to improve their speaking skills as well as their autonomy and academic independency. Sample: In this research students of TNB08 will be evaluated.

TNB08 students will form the control and experimental group, settings will be similar in both groups.

Junior Portugal Rivas