Job Discussion Forums

[jomo]

Any advice here on best attributes of small classroom groupings for college students in conversational english in china. Best size 2 or 3, 4 or 5, 6 or more, etc. Probably i will have nearly 40 learners, desks may be movable. What about having same sex (if prior word beeped out, think gender) groups, is that good, not good? Other comments welcome.

[Yu]

Good luck getting them to actually move around an form groups. I.e. you count them off.... 1, 2, 3, 4... and ask the 1s to go here, 2s there, etc... and nobody moves. Then you count them off again... and nobody moves, and nobody knows where they are supposed to move to...

Once they get into groups, good luck actually getting them to talk in English.

If you are successful, let me know how you did it.

As for as group size I would go 3 or 4 depending on the activity. Sometimes smaller is better, sometimes bigger.

[Roger]

You must implement a stricdt reward-penalty system by dint of scores in order to wheedle them into cooperating with you. Remember they are 5 years younger intellectually than your own country's students, and won't budge unless they must, or they earn a prize.

Group size: No hard answer, but definitely higher than 2. I normally have 4 to 6 in a group.

What's working in m,y classes is that they have to brainstorm in groups, while one will have to represent their group as a speaker. They are allowed to rehearse their speeches beforehand with the help of their peers, but while in front they must not read from prepared papers. I allow occasional notes.

I define topics so narrowly that they know what they must talk about; either it is "the negative aspects of using mobile phones" - not a rundown of pros and cons of using mobile phones - so that they have to make up their minds clearly enough.

What's of uppermost importance, however, is for the AUDIENCE TO PLAY THEIR PART: they must know what the speaker in front is talking about. I elicit their feedback - failing to do this results in penalties. This teaches them to pay respect and attention to their peers. And it helps improve their aural/oral English as they learn to identify good and bad pronunciation and performance.