Move your desks and chairs : primary students working in groups in the English classroom

Abstract

Group work, has long been promoted by scholars as well as the Education Bureau, is believed to be beneficial to students’ learning, especially in equipping them with language knowledge as well as generic skills needed in the 21st knowledge-based society such as collaboration skills. Although an ample amount of researches have indicated the merits of using group work to facilitate students’ second language acquisition, limited is heard from students regarding their opinions towards the use of group work in English lessons.

The current research aims at investigating Hong Kong primary students’ perceptions towards the use of group work during English lessons. It also targets at exploring some teaching strategies that English teachers could implement in lessons for the sake of assisting students to work and learn effectively in groups.

This research was done in a local CMI Primary school with students from Primary 2 and 5. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected through a variety of means such as conducting observations, distributing questionnaires, writing teaching journals and doing interviews with teachers and students etc. The data collected was then analyzed through tabulation and transcription.

The results indicated that students generally demonstrated positive attitude towards the use of group work in English lessons and they held the belief that group work is an effective tool for facilitating English learning. It also reflected the essentiality of teaching students some communication strategies before engaging them in group work, which may have long been neglected by practitioners.