SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT HÀM RỒNG

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

TRƯỜNG THPT HÀM RỒNG
INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

HOW TO ORGANIZE
PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK
INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
EFFECTIVELY IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR 10th
GRADE STUDENTS AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

Người thực
hiện:
Phạm Thị
Ngọc
Yến
HOW TO ORGANIZE
PAIR
WORK
AND
GROUP
WORK
Chức vụ: Giáo viên
EFFECTIVELY
INthuộc
TEACHING
ENGLISH

been a teacher of English at high school for 26 years. From my own experiences,
I find that using pair work and group work is one of the teaching strategies of
collaborative language teaching which provides chances for communication and
interaction among students and between students and teacher. Language
classroom is the place where teacher and learners come together for interaction
and can learn in natural settings. The effective use of pair work and group work
in language class can provide a value experience to students and give them the
opportunity to practically experience the ideas presented and strengthen their
learning.
I have applied pair work and group work activities in teaching English at
high school, especially for 10th grade students of Ham Rong High School and
got satisfactory results. I, therefore, in this research, would like to share my own
experience in how to use and organize pair work and group work effectively in
teaching English procedure.
2. Aim of the study.
- To introduce pair work and group work and show the advantages and
disadvantages of working in pairs and groups.
- To suggest how to organize pair and group work effectively and how to
deal with initial problems that may arise.
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- To show how pair work and group work can be used for various
classroom activities.
- To help teachers be confident in using pair and group work themselves.
3. Scope and research methodology
- Scope: Researching in the process of teaching English to 10th grade students at
Ham Rong high school.
- Research methodology: making survey, reading reference books, applying in
teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.

opportunities for learners to use English in the class.
2.2. Definition of group work
Group work is defined as more than one person working together to
complete a task or assignment. In the classroom, group work can take many
forms, however, the goal remains the same--get students to interact with each
other and collaborate to complete a unified task. By doing so, we are getting
students to work with people they may never have chosen to work with. This
concept teaches diversity, communication, and compromise.
There is a tendency of teacher- dominated lesson and students usually get
bored with teacher- centered presentation. Teachers at high schools are in the
period of getting used to new English textbook. Pair work and group work didn’t
use to be organized in class, so a lot of us – teachers of English at high school –
get stuck in organizing pair work and group work effectively. Some teachers
haven’t been clearly aware of the roles of pair work and group work in teaching
and learning a foreign language. A few teacher reject the possibility of success
of pair and group work. They give different reasons for their belief, some of the
reasons are lack of resources, students use mother tongue during pair and group
work , discipline problem due to noise generated during pair and group work
activities and so on.
As a result, despite being an important part of collaborative teaching and
learning, pair and group work generally neglected in teaching English at high
school.
3. Solutions and methods for implementation
3.1. Solutions
Teacher should know well about what pair work and group work are, their
both advantages and disadvantages as well as solutions to these problems.
Moreover, they should find the ways to organize pair work and group work
activities effectively so that we can make use of their benefits and limit their
problems. In order to organize pair and group work well, teacher will need to do
the followings:

work at the same time. The teacher walks around listening, intervenes little if at
all.

3. Main advantages, problems and solution to the problems.
For certain types of activity, pair work and group work have a number of
advantages over working with the whole class together. Teachers should think
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what the main advantages are, and also what problems might be involved in pair
work, group work and the solutions for these.
Here are some main advantages and problems:
Advantages

Problems

- More language practice
- More speaking time
- Students are more involved
- Students feel secure, confident
- Students help one another
- Give students the sense of achievement when
reaching a team goal.

- Noise arrangements
- Students make mistakes
- Lose control of the class
…………………………
………………………..
……………………….

cannot be helped. But usually the students themselves are not disturbed by the
noise; it is more noticeable to the teacher standing at the side or to someone in
the next room . The noise created by pair work and group work is usually
“good” noise. “ Group work , by its nature, is designed to generate noise”
( Nunan and Lamb p.14, 1996). Students use English or engage in a learning
task. Teacher should stop the activity when most groups or pairs have finished or
prepare a “reserve” task to occupy members of groups who finish earlier than
expected.
3.2.2. Students make mistakes
During a pair or group activity, the teacher cannot control all the language
used, and should not try to do so. When doing controlled language practice in
pairs or groups, the number of mistakes can be reduced by giving enough
preparation, the activity can be done with the whole class first, and pair work
used for final stage. Checking afterwards is also important. The teacher can ask
some pairs or groups what they said , and then correct mistakes if necessary.
3.2.3. Difficult to control class
The teacher has less control over what students are doing in pair work and
group work than in normal class. To stop activities getting out control, it is
important to give clear instructions about when to start, what to do and when to
stop. Give them clearly defined tasks which do not continue for too long.
Teacher should set up a routine so that students accept the idea of working in
pairs or groups, and know exactly what to do.
3.3. Steps used to organize pair work and group work activities effectively
in the classroom:
3.3.1. Select the activity
An activity that is best suited for group work may meet the following criteria
such as the activity which has multiple tasks that can be shared among group
members or a single task, such as generating ideas, that benefit from the

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teachers also take into account the total number of groups within the class.
Group membership can be determined in different ways. A random selection
might be done by "counting off" with students (go around the room
systematically having students count 1, 2, 3, etc., with each numbers
representing a group) or selecting groups on the basis of birth date.

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In a nonrandom selection, groups will be selected based on the teachers'
prior knowledge. Usually, groups are selected to maximize diversity within the
group, since diversity enhances learning. Such groups often have a balance of
girls and boys, and students with differing ability levels. Teachers can also use
their best judgment about personality mixes that would enhance the work of the
group. Sometimes groups are organized only for one activity. Other times,
teachers use the same small groups for a series of activities, so that students get
used to working with one another.
If the tables and chairs cannot be moved for group work, then students can
form groups by turning around in seats to face the children behind.
3.3.5. Organize students within the group.
A laissez-faire approach to group work would be that the teacher give a
general assignment to the group -- like organize a research project on 'qualities
of good leaders' -- and the students are left to organize themselves.
A highly structured approach would be that the teacher assigns a specific
role to each group member. Depending upon the task, the roles might include
'materials handler', 'scribe', 'reporter to the large group' and so on. A semistructured approach might be that the teacher recommend certain roles, but
leaves it to the group to assign roles.
A more structured approach, with rotation of tasks within a group, is often
used with younger children. A less structured approach can be used with
students with experience in group work or for simple tasks that do not require


1. UNIT 1 - PART B: SPEAKING
Task 2 and Task 3. Talk about Quan’s activities, using the pictures below and
then tell your classmates about your daily routine.
- Asks students to work in pairs to describe about Quan’s activities( base on the
pictures) , then ask and answer about their daily routine at that time.

T: Look at picture a, what does Quan do at 14:00?
S: He gets up after taking a short nap.
T: What do you usually do at 14:00?
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S: I usually do my homework.
- Teacher suggests some phrases if necessary: to get up, to read books, to watch
TV, to go to school, to play football, to go home, to have a shower, to go to the
stadium,…
- Teacher asks students to fill the information in the following table. (Give each
pair a handout)
Using the pictures in your textbook, describe Quan’s daily activities and find
the same information about your partner.
At
14:00
14:15
16:30
17:00
17:15
18:30
18:45
19:00


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6
7

8
9
10
11

Can you tell me about your parents? (name/ age/
occupation,…)
Brother(s)/ Sister(s)
How many brothers/ sisters have you got?
Primary school/ Secondary school
What’s the name of your primary school /
secondary school?
Schoolwork
How do you work at school?
Favourite subject(s)
What subject(s) do you like best?
Experience
Were you a member of any clubs?
11/ Thanking
Thank you very much.

3. UNIT 3 - PART B: SPEAKING
Consolidation

S2: There are 8 members in her family.
6. She/ be/ famous singer/ Vietnam.
S1: Is she a famous singer in Vietnam?

4. UNIT 7 - PART A: READING
Warm –up: Jumbled words
- Teacher writes some jumbled words about popular programs on TV, asks
students to work in groups of 3 to rearrange the words as soon as possible, then
practise reading aloud the words.
1. milf -> film
2. prosts -> sports
3. sumic -> music
4. coraton -> cartoon
5. cormuteandy -> documentary
- After 2 mimutes, call 3 students of the fastest group to write down on the board
at the same time and give them marks for their work.
UNIT 7 - PART D: WRITING
- Most of the students are afraid of writing a paragraph because of some reasons
such as poor vocabulary source, bad grammartical stuctures…Thus, to make this
task easier, teacher can design the task by choosing one of the mass media “The
Internet”.
- Asks students to work in groups of 4 and gives each group a handout:
Task 3: Write a paragraph about the advantages and disadvantages of one of
the mass media discussed in Task 2.
1. Nobody can deny the benefits/ Internet/ our life today.
2. However, the Internet/ own advantages/ disadvantages.
3. It/ make/ life easier/ enjoyable.
4. It/ broaden/ knowledge/ understanding.
5. It/ provide/ quick access/ information/ entertainment.
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-> They may have better food.
4/ They / develop / better / natural environment.
-> They may develop better in their natural environment.
Disadvantages
1/ I’d like / talk / about / disadvantages.

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-> I’d like to talk about the disadvantages.
2/ We / spend / a lot / money / on / reconstruct / animals’ natural environment.
-> We may spend a lot of money on reconstructions of the animals’ natural
environment.
3/ Keepers/ have/ dangers when they take care/ wild animals.
-> Keepers may have the dangers when they take care of wild animals.
- Teacher goes round and help if necessary.
UNIT 11 – PART E: LANGUAGE FOCUS
Conditional sentence type 3
- To review the conditional type 3, teacher can organize the game like this:
+ One student starts with a conditional sentence type 3. For example,
I hadn’t gone out, I would have done more homework.
+ After that, the second student makes another conditional sentence type 3 with
the if- clause is from the main- clause of the first student’s sentence. For
example,
If I had done more homework, I would have passed my exam.
+ The next students will continue the game by doing similarly.
- Students can play the game in groups of five. Any student can’t make a correct
sentence will lose the game.
d. Suggestion for some popular kinds of practice.
Pairwork and groupwork are not “teaching methods”, but ways of organizing

sit in pairs and correct what their partner has written.
* Discussions:
With more advanced class, discussions can be conducted in group. It is
important to define the discussion clearly and to ask each group to report their
conclusions afterwards.
* Grammar exercises:
Student can do grammar exercises orally in pairs; the teacher goes throught
the answers afterwards with the who class and students write the exercises for
homework. This is more interesting and productive than students doing
exercises alone, in silence.

III. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE STUDY
After a year applying pair work and group work activities in teaching English
at Ham Rong high school, I have got some satisfactory results. Most of my
students have become more interested in learning English and of course their
ability to use English in communication has been improved step by step.
Moreover, their learning results in English subject has got better (as detailed in
the following tables)
- At the beginning of the school year
Students

Excellent-good

Average

Weak (bad)
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10 A9

effective and essential strategy for teaching English. It can improve motivation
and contribute to a feeling of cooperation and warmth on the class. However, it
is concluded that pair work and group work are best used when they are not the
only classroom interaction pattern, but when they are combined with other
strategies. Besides pair and group work, students can also complete activities
individually and as a class. Mixing up the structure of the activities will keep
classes interesting. Therefore, teacher had better plan the lessons to include
teacher-centered work, individual work and pair work as well as group work.
Surely, this study can not avoid having limitations and making mistakes. Yet
I hope it will be helpful for teaching English at high school and suitable for
communicative teaching approach.
XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ
TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh Hóa, ngày 10 tháng 5 năm 2019
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình viết,
không sao chép nội dung của người khác.
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)
Phạm Thi Ngọc Yến

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REFERENCE
1. English 10 - Education Publishing House- 2006
Hoang Van Van (chief editor)
2. Teaching training materials- Education Publishing House- 2006
Hoang Van Van (chief editor)
3. Preparation for high school graduation and university entrance exam Education Publishing House- 2006 - Nguyen Hai Chau (chief editor)
4. Some types of English tests 10 – Education Publishing House

đánh giá xếp
loại
2011 – 2012

động ngoại khóa đối với học
2.

3.

sinh bậc THPT”.
“ How to teach Speaking
Skill effectively to tenth
grade students at Ham
Rong High School”.
“ Some techniques used to

Sở

B

2014 – 2015

Sở

C

2016 – 2017

teach Listening skill to 10th
grade students at Ham