For native English-speaking teachers trained in teachingEnglish as a second language (TESL) in native-speakingcountries, their first experience in teaching English as aforeign language (TEFL) is likely to be a jarring one.Instead of facing a small number of highly motivated stu-dents who must learn English in order to get along insociety, they see before them fifty or more studentswhose attitudes toward learning English may be ambiva-lent at best. And instead of dealing with students whoare constantly being stimulated to communicate by thelearning environment, they face students who may havenever had to communicate anything in English duringtheir long, and often tedious, history of instruction. Ifthey use English with their students, even if limitingthemselves as much as possible to the English whichtheir students have been taught in classes, these teach-ers are likely to receive only blank stares in return.

To make things worse,many teachers are stymied bythe physical constraints imposed by large numbers inconfined classrooms. They feel unable to promote stu-dent interaction, since there is no room to move about.Meanwhile, teachers are also worried by the disciplineaspects of large classes. They feel unable to control whatis happening, and that classes often become too noisy.In addition, large classes make them unable to give indi-vidual attention to their students and to check all stu-dents’ work. Since they do not know who is learningwhat, they are understandably concerned.

These are legitimate problems, but the fact is that inmany locations in Asia class sizes are unlikely to bereduced in the foreseeable future. Given that fact, teach-ers need to be helped to come to terms with these prob-lems. My purpose in this article is, therefore, to argue fora gradual, broad-based approach to innovation in theEnglish classroom. In particular, I plan to argue thatsmall-group learning experiences in large language class-es tend to be more successful when viewed as part of acarefully orchestrated shift in the direction of a truly stu-dent-centered system of learning management.

Benefits of Group-Centered Learning inLarge Classes

With the recent,gradual shift from teacher-centeredclassroom teaching to student-centered classroomteaching in TESOL worldwide, group work has becomea key feature in language study. Classroom experienceand empirical research have demonstrated many educational benefits of frequent use of group work inlarge classes.

Group Work Helps a Majority of LanguageLearners

For a number of reasons, teacher-centered class-rooms tend to produce a small number of successfullearners and a relatively large number of failures in alarge class. As central communicators, this minority ofsuccessful learners speaks relatively frequently with theteacher. Spurred on by high expectations of success,they apply themselves more diligently to the difficultprocess of learning a language, and as a result theycome out on top. Their success, however, is achieved atthe cost of failure for the majority. The average studenthas relatively few chances to interact with the teacher.

Group-centered classrooms, on the other hand,offer at least the potential for avoiding some of the built-in disadvantages of a teacher-centered classroom. Asthe teacher gradually relinquishes his position as thefocal point for classroom communication,opportunitiesfor active, meaningful, and varied use of the target language increase substantially for the average student(Long). Also, as many have pointed out (for example,Long; La Forge), a small learning group, once it hasgrown to maturity, can provide a more supportive environment than a large, teacher-dominated class, andone in which all students are therefore more likely totake the kinds of risks necessary for successful language acquisition.

Rao Zhenhui, M.A.

Advantages of Group-Centered

Learning in Large Classes

Teacher’s Edition — 8 — September 2001

How to create group-centered learning in large ESL classes and

why it’s worthwhile.

Group Work Creates More Opportunities forInteraction

Carefully designed interactions between studentsprovide a classroom forum for extended, meaningfulexploration of ideas, which promotes communicativelanguage competence (Christison;Long and Porter;Pica,Young, and Doughty) as well as literacy development(Enright and McCloskey). Working with peers toexplore an issue or solve a problem requires students toarticulate and justify their own points of view, as well asexposing them to new ideas, perspectives, and specificapproaches. This process of discussing, questioning,organizing, and applying course material facilitates com-prehension and retention of critical lesson concepts andacademic language (Bejarano;McGroarty). In addition topromoting cognitive learning and interactional skills,group work affects students’ attitudes and interpersonalrelationships.

Group Work Facilitates Cooperation AmongStudents

Another benefit in group-centered classrooms isthat new linguistic input need not be channeled solelythrough the teacher. Packages of learning materials canbe provided which are designed to feed new inputdirectly into a peer learning group. It might also encour-age more helping behavior, thus spreading the burden ofteaching more evenly around the classroom. As the peerlearning group eventually becomes the focus of class-room management, students will come to have a greaterstake in the success of the learning experience, andmany will therefore try harder to make it work. Forexample, jigsaw listening exercises and other communi-cation games which require sharing of information inorder to accomplish a group task can introduce new lan-guage; build on language that has already been learned;require individual learners to share what they havealready learned with one another; and introduce a pattern of language use which is spontaneous,unpredictable, and involves relatively long stretches of discourse.

Group Work Enables Students to Plan andEvaluate Their Learning

As the peer learning group gradually becomes thecentral focus of classroom learning, it can also come to

serve as a forum for planning and evaluation. Because alarge amount of class time is already being devoted tosmall group communication activities, it could becomelogical and natural for some of these activities to focuson a discussion of group aims or purposes, and of waysto best achieve these aims. Also, because learning is agroup experience, the participants themselves are in agood position to evaluate the success of the activities.Experience also tells us that students working togetherin groups can be given a role in evaluating one another’sperformances. This may also lead to the possibility ofmaking the reward structure partially cooperative, withindividual students being rewarded and held account-able for the success of group activities.

Organizing Group Work

We should note that a group, under the direction ofa group leader who coordinates activities and serves asa link with the teacher, is a largely autonomous practiceunit. Activities which students are asked to undertake ingroups are defined by the teacher and discussed firstwith the class as a whole, but once this has been done,students should be allowed to work to a large extent ontheir own. Divided into groups, students are now ableto sit together, facing one another in a small, intimate cir-cle (like a club meeting) and to talk freely. The teacheris still present and has an important and often demand-ing role to play in helping and advising students, but shehas abdicated her previous role and become somethinglike a guide or a consultant.

Here are some key points in organizing group work:

Group Logistics

The size of the groups must be worked out in rela-tion to the number of students in the class, but as a gen-eral rule there should be between five and eight stu-dents in each group and if possible not more than five orsix groups in the class. Groups should be formed by theteacher and should include students of mixed abilities,on the principle that they will help one another in vari-ous ways. Later on, students might be allowed to changegroups. Each group should have an identifying label (aname or a number) and a set position or workspace inthe classroom so that, when students are asked to dogroup work, they can begin with a minimum of fuss anddelay. Usually, where possible, group work involvessome rearrangement of classroom furniture.

Teacher’s Edition — 9 — September 2001

Group Leader

Each group should have its own leader or coordina-tor. Initially,he may have to be appointed by the teacher,but since this role should change from student to stu-dent, they can later be allowed to choose their own lead-ers. The function of a group leader is not to dominatethe group but to coordinate activities and to serve as alink with the teacher.

Role of the Teacher

The teacher’s maintask is to prepare students(perhaps simply by brief-ing group leaders) for theactivities they must under-take. Having done this, sheshould to a large extentleave them to get on withtheir work. However, thisdoes not mean that she cansit back and relax.Students should be encour-aged to consult her as theneed arises and, dependingon the type of activity andon the level of the stu-dents, she should visit thegroups and observe and lis-ten to what is going on. Ifshe participates in an activ-ity, she should try to do soas if she were a member ofthe group. Her job is nolonger to control or correct them. Instead, she shouldobserve difficulties and mistakes, noting both individualand general problems. In light of this, she will be able to shape both her teaching and group activities forfuture lessons.

Duration and Frequency

Many factors are involved in determining durationand frequency—including the number of lessons perweek and the level of the class—but once students haveenough language for communicative activities, on how-ever limited a scale, some group work should be carriedout about once a week for perhaps half a class period.

Longer sessions may sometimes be needed—for exam-ple, to complete a project in which the students areespecially involved. In general, it is inadvisable to inter-rupt an activity which is going well.

Difficulties With Changing Systems

Having discussed the potential benefits of group-centered learning and illustrated how to organize groupwork in large classes, it should now be possible to dis-cuss some of the difficulties that are likely to arise when

a teacher suddenlyattempts to alter the cus-tomary classroom systemwithout making accompa-nying changes in othercomponents of classroommanagement. The firstpoint to make is that stu-dents who have becomeaccustomed to a teacher-centered system of learn-ing management will findit difficult to involve them-selves in group work.Teacher-centered classes,in other words, breedteacher-centered learnerswho may be more prone tocompete than to cooper-ate, who are more accus-tomed to answering ques-tions and obeying instruc-tions than to asking ques-tions and giving instruc-

tions of their own, and who look primarily to theteacher for correction and guidance.

Another problem with attempting to start grouplearning with students who have acquired the target lan-guage within the context of a teacher-centered interac-tion network, is that such students are unlikely to havedeveloped meaningful language and communicationskills. In group-centered learning in large classes, stu-dents need to be able to get a discussion going, breaksilence, interrupt, steer other participants toward con-sensus, get a sidetracked discussion back on track, andelicit responses from silent members without alienatingthem. Where these skills are lacking, as they almost cer-tainly are in a class with a history of teacher domination,

Teacher’s Edition — 10 — September 2001

©2001 Hayden Sewall

Teacher’s Edition — 11 — September 2001

group discussion is likely to be an unsettling and unsat-isfactory experience.

Finally, we may consider the consequences of main-taining a competitive goal structure and teacher-cen-tered system of evaluation in a class where a largeamount of group learning is envisaged. Here, the prob-lem is again one of incompatibility. If students perceivethat in the final analysis they will be judged by theteacher, and that they will be rewarded on the basis oftheir own individual performance rather than coopera-tive group work, they will have no interest in the suc-cess of group experiences. Group work is likely to bemuch more successful when a cooperative goal andgrading structure give students a personal interest in thesuccessful performance of the group as a whole.

Conclusion

Teaching an oversized class will never be as easy asteaching a small class, nor will students in such largeclasses ever progress as rapidly as those in smaller class-es. However, this does not mean we can do nothing toimprove teaching in large classes. In this article, I havejustified the use of group work in organizing classroomteaching and attempted to make some suggestions as tohow to organize group activity in EFL teaching. Itshould be emphasized that the teacher’s skill in class-room management is a primary ingredient for successwith group work in large classes, and that studentsshould be fully aware of what is expected of them andbe ready to work to achieve objectives set by theteacher. Only in this way can more students obtain morebenefits from group work. n

References

Bejarano,Y. “A Cooperative Small-Group Methodology inthe Language Classroom.” TESOL Quarterly 21, pp. 483-504, 1987.

Christison, M.A. “Cooperative Learning in the ESLClassroom.” English Teaching Forum 28, pp. 6-9, 1990.

Enright, D., and M. McCloskey. Integrating English.Addison Wesley, 1988.

La Forge, P. “Community Language Learning: AnExperiment in Japan.” English Language TeachingJournal 15 (1), pp. 8-11, 1977.

Long, M.B. “Group Work in the Teaching and Learning ofEnglish as a Foreign Language.” English Language

Teaching Journal 31 (4), pp. 285-292, 1977.

Long, M., and P. Porter. “Group Work, Interlanguage Talk,and Second Language Acquisition.” TESOL Quarterly 19,pp. 207-228, 1985.

McGroarty, M. “Cooperative Learning: The Benefits forContent-Area Teaching.” In P.A. Richard-Amato and M.A.Snow, ed. The Multicultural Classroom. Longman,1992.

Pica, T., R. Young, and C. Doughty. “The Impact ofInteraction on Comprehension.” TESOL Quarterly 21,pp. 737-758, 1987.

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Rao Zhenhui (M.A.,TESOL,Flinders University) has beenteaching at the Foreign Languages College of JiangxiNormal University in China since 1996.

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Resource Bulletin Board

TESOL Convention 2002

Dates: April 9-13, 2002

Organizer: Teachers of English to Speakers ofOther Languages, Inc.

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

TESOL 2002

Theme: Language and the Human Spirit

This annual conference includes pre- and post-convention institutes, and publisher and soft-ware exhibitions. Some travel grants are avail-able for international participants.

Contact TESOL, Inc., 700 South Washington St.,Suite 200, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, USA.Telephone: (1) (703) 836-0774. Fax: (1) (703)836-7864. E-mail: conventions@tesol.org.Website: www.tesol.org.

Please refer to the Editor’s Keyboard columnon page 2 for comments on a visit to theTESOL 2001 convention.