Tue, 04 Jun 2019

The Fun Side of Group Teaching

Can you imagine being in a foreign country and you don’t speak the language? You are a new student, who is shy, nervous. You haven’t made any friends yet and you don’t have confidence in your speaking skills. A classroom could be a terrifying place to be which is why the role of the teacher is so important. Since most non-English speaking students are typically shy in English class, teaching English through various types of methods such as “groups” can be beneficial to the students.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mohamed A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Learning Based on Real-life Communicaton

When listening to students in groups, a teacher will notice the everyday language skills being used. These are the natural conversations amongst the students and not their classroom skills. This type of communication in another language helps promote confidence in non-English speaking students as well as getting students to talk to each other. They are putting their English skills to good use. Group teaching is a way to build camaraderie amongst the students making everlasting friendships. These friendships are an important part of classroom management where a teacher can get a feel for who the leaders of the classroom are. These leaders can then be used as mentors to the other students in the classroom.

Also Read: Group Teaching or One-to-One: What Will You Choose?

Grouping Techniques

There are various grouping combinations that foster different outcomes. One way to group students is by varying skill level. This type of group encourages more skilled English speakers to lead discussions, mentor less English skilled students and share their knowledge with others. Grouping by the same skill level will help the entire group as a whole, understand the topic and will promote more talking because they can all understand each other. They can be grouped by the same first language. This type of grouping helps students learn more difficult tasks or lessons that can be translated into their same language. Once they understand the project in their own language, they can translate it and work out the answer. Another way to group students is in different languages. This can be a challenge but maybe a simple activity is introduced.

Also Read: How to Keep Beginner Students Motivated Avoiding Their Native Language?

Choice of Activities

Once a group is established, there are many types of English lessons or games that can promote the opportunity for students to practice their English skills. Having a group project is a way to accomplish a difficult task which requires communication. Solving a problem and sharing information stimulates conversations on how to find solutions which they may use in their everyday life. Role-playing can be used with any topic that can be recreated, which the English conversations can be used in practical and realistic ways.

Some non-English speaking students learn best when they’re interacting with other people. They can do this by learning in a variety of group activities. Practicing their English skills in groups encourages their school relationships to develop into friendships. Teachers who are excited about teaching non-English speaking students in a variety of ways helps nervous and shy students to enjoy learning English. The creative and fun activities that are introduced in the classroom, help students to relax, make new friends and then use their English outside the classroom. This is both beneficial and fun for non-English speaking students.