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Foreign Language Annals
A Study of Spanish II High
School Students’ Discourse
During Group Work
David C. Alley
Group work

Group work is defined as any activity
involving two or more students in which,
for a time, the teacher does not have to
directly intervene
Teachers are reluctant to use group
work because they feel…
• students are learning from one another’s mistakes
• it is wasting time on off-task behavior
• students use English excessively
Advantages to Group Work
•
•
•
•
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Shifts the responsibility for learning from teacher
to student
Increases achievement and improves students’
attitudes
Has been shown to be superior to other forms of
individual and competitive instruction in terms of
cognitive and social outcomes
Reduces the perceptions of differences in
individuals
Helps students develop critical thinking skills
Disadvantages to Group Work
•
•
•
•
Teachers may feel threatened with their
authority
Teachers feel it is damaging to grammar
learning (although research shows this is
untrue)
Is time consuming
Allows for too much off-task talking
Two Sides
• Although speaking in their L1 is often considered
inappropriate and off task it can have a functional
purpose that is critical to the successful completion of
the assignment
• Allowing English will later frustrate them when
speaking to a native foreign language speaker
Two categories that are typically
discouraged in L2 classrooms
•
•
•
•
Metacognitive talk- learners talking about how to do
a particular task
Metatalk- learners talking about their own talk
Rather than being considered off-task behavior both
metacognitive talk and metatalk are critical to
helping group members find what they do and do
not know
Students can explain the task to each other,
negotiate roles, and check their understanding or
production of the language against their peers
Research from Project TALK
•
•
•
Majority of on-task talk was metatalk
Ex. Student: “I think it’s the ser form of
yo soy. Yo soy muy enfermo or something
like that.”
Partly due to topics didn’t always deal with
vocabulary and grammar being studied
Research from Project TALK
•
•
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Second was metacognitive talk
Ex. Student: “How many remarks do we
have to have for each one?”
Is consistent with Brooks (1997) findings
that group participants must reformulate
the task in order to establish priorities and
procedures
Off-task talk was the lowest in frequency
Student’s evaluations
•
•
Over 65% agreed or strongly agreed with
“I think I learn a lot in the speaking
situation”
55% agreed or strongly agreed with “I
want more time for group activities”
My Opinion
•
•
•
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Most students like it
More students will involve themselves in it
There are more pros than cons
In the end students will get something out
of it