Classroom Interaction

When playing a game, or performing any other activity which supposes a task during the language classes, the students may be organized in groups, in pairs, individually or as a whole class. There are games which involve the whole class, but this does not mean the class sitting in orderly rows; the students circulate freely they move to and for. Hadfield (1999: 5) recommends that the desks and tables should be placed in a U-shape if possible. This way, the students may move in the empty area in the centre of the U-shape. If it is not possible to arrange the tables in this position, whole-class activities present a little more of a problem, but often there is a space big enough for the students to move around in at the front of the class, or desks can be pushed back to clear a space in the centre. Also, this way of arranging the desks is suitable for all the ways of organizing the class. Students can then work with the person sitting next to them for pair work, and groups of threes and fours can easily be formed by alternate pairs moving their chairs to the inner side of the U, opposite another pair. If it is not possible to arrange desks in this way, this need not deter the teacher: the traditional arrangement of front-facing desks can be easily adapted to pair work, with people at adjoining desks working together, while small groups can be formed by two people turning their chairs round to face the people behind them. As Harmer (1998: 21) points out, group work and pair work have become increasingly popular in language teaching since they seem to have quite a few advantages. In groups, the students tend to participate more equally and they are more able to experiment and use the language than they are in a whole class arrangement. Wright (2006: 3) considers that of the four types of grouping, individual, pair, and group work are of especial value in ensuring that each learner has the best opportunity for oral practice in using language, beyond what is possible in class work. Also, the moment the students get into pairs and start working on a task, many more of them will be doing the activity than if the teacher was working with the entire class. These types of class organization give the students the chance to have greater independence. Because they are working together without the teacher controlling every more, they take some of their own

learning decisions; they decide what language to use to complete the task, they work without the pressure of the whole class listening to what they are doing. They share the responsibilities and the decisions are cooperatively arrived at. Moreover, group work and pair work give the teacher the possibility of working with some students individually. While the groups work on their tasks, the teacher may spend some time with a certain group who may need a special attention. Pair work is easy to organize and very fast either. It provides opportunities for listening and speaking practice and it is preferred if there are discipline problems within the group. On the other hand, there are some problems a teacher may encounter when approaching these ways of organization. For example, certain students may not like the persons they are grouped or paired with. Or, in any group or pair, there may be students who dominate the discussion while others will have the tendency to remain silent. Also, in the situation when the teacher deals with difficult classes, group work may encourage students to be more disruptive than they would be in a whole class teacher-centered activity. Also, in a class where the students have the same first language, as in the case of the Romanian system of education, the students may revert to their mothers tongue, rather than English, especially when the teacher is not working with them. Some games or activities require four to six players; in these cases it is necessary to use group work. If there is to be competition between groups, the teacher should be careful to organize groups of mixed ability. Many teachers consider it advisable to have a group leader. However, groups can operate perfectly well without a group leader. The leader would normally be one of the more able learners. There is much to be said about encouraging a reticent learner by giving the responsibility to him or her. The leaders role is to ensure that the game is properly organized, and to act as an intermediary between learners and teacher. The alternative to group or pair work is solo work, which may have some advantages: it allows the student to work on his or her own speed, having enough time to think; it allows the student to concentrate more on his or her individual needs and progress. The amount of time dedicated to group work, pair work and solo work depends much on every teachers style on the one hand and on the class preferences on the other. A solution would be for the teacher to use different grouping for different activities; while doing this, he or she will monitor which one is more successful, which one makes his teaching techniques more effective.